Trained to Kill
by stanaticfanatic
Summary: AU. Castle and Beckett might seem ordinary, but in fact they're both highly trained assassins. When an ordinary assignment goes wrong, neither of them could have predicted the consequences. Now complete.
1. The Mix Up

**_A/N: so I saw on tumblr someone asking for fics where Beckett and Castle are undercover spies given the task of killing each other, but couldn't find any. As Mr and Mrs Smith is one of my favourite films, I figured I'd do a Castle and Beckett version! (You don't have to have seen the film to understand this, but the film is brilliant!)_**

* * *

Richard Castle was bored. Bored of writing books he didn't even want to write, bored of simple, easy assignments that took less than a day to complete. He was a spy, for crying out loud. A skilled assassin - and one of the best. So really, he shouldn't be bored. But he was. Gina, his publisher/assignment coordinator, had given him nothing in three weeks and it was getting a little tedious. He picked up the phone, deciding to give Gina a call.

After three rings, he heard the automated message, asking for his name and security number. "Richard Rogers, 47313." He recited in a mundane voice. It might seem ridiculously easy to get ahold of the president of an international spy organisation - anyone could get the number if they had the right leverage over him - but he knew the little machine was currently processing his voice, comparing every syllable against the one he'd pre-recorded back when he first joined.

A few moments later and he was being redirected to Gina. "Hello Richard, what do you want today?" She said.

"Oh I don't know, how about a case that takes me longer than 12 hours? Come on Gina, you know me. You were married to me for seven years! Why aren't you giving me anything?" He asked, annoyed at his lack of assignments recently.

"You know why, Richard. That book of yours comes first - the press will start publishing stories about you, saying you're stuck and then some nosy reporter will be lurking around and we can't let them know why the book isn't finished yet." If she'd told him this once, she'd told him a hundred times.

He used the fact that he was a best-selling mystery novelist, writing under the name of Richard Castle to hide who he really was. He was Richard Rogers, the spy and Richard Castle, the author. So he went by Castle to pretty much everyone, including his mother and daughter, they still had no idea he was actually a world-class assassin, known by similar organisations worldwide for the number of terrorists, murderers and other low-life's he'd eliminated.

"Oh come on, I've given them at least twenty best sellers so far, they aren't going to mind waiting a few more weeks!" He argued. It wasn't that he didn't like writing, no he loved it, but he was getting sick of this character, Derrick Storm. He needed new cases for inspiration..sitting around bored was not getting Gina more bestsellers.

"Well, I do have this one case..I was going to give it to Thomson, but I guess you could have it.." She said slowly. "It's not a big one though, it's pretty quiet over here at the moment, but I'll give you this one and if you can finish that book by the end of next week, I'll think about you for the next."

Ideally Castle wanted something special, something different, but right now, he'd take what he could get. "Ok I'll do it. Email over the itinerary and I'll get right on it." Finally, he could get out of this damn office.

* * *

On the other side of town, Detective Kate Beckett had just finished up a hard case. A little girl had been taken and Beckett had worked a similar case before - with a heart-wrenching result. Luckily, this time the child wasn't really in any danger - she'd been abducted by her aunt, who was working on her sisters orders to try and gain full custody over her husband. Still, it brought back memories of the time they weren't so lucky.. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She loved her job, she was brilliant at her job, but it was a cover story for who she really was - Katherine Beckett was actually a highly trained killer. She spent her time hunting down worthless individuals who put the lives of others at risk. On more than one occasion, she'd had an assignment right here in New York City, and had had to investigate a murder she committed. It was testament to how good she was that she'd never been caught.

Getting up from her desk, she headed into the break room to make a cup of coffee. Pouring the liquid into her favourite mug, she heard someone shut the door behind her. She turned round to see it was Roy Montgomery, her Captain - both here at the precinct and as a killer in the field, he was undercover too.

"Good job on that case Detective, I know it couldn't have been easy for you." He said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"No, it wasn't, but we did it. Will Sorrenson was a huge help too, please pass on my thanks to him and his team." She replied.

"Oh from the way he was looking at you, I don't think it'll be long before he's back here and trying to get you back." Her captain said, a twinkle in his eye. He'd always had a soft spot for Kate, and over the last few years he'd become almost a father figure to her. She was incredible at her job - both of them. She was the best he'd ever trained - possibly ever seen and her lack of family made her so much better suited to the job than most - no one to miss her if she were to be killed. He'd miss her of course, but family had a personal attachment - the less family the better. He knew her father was still around but she hadn't spoken to him in five years - he'd turned to alcohol after her mother had been killed ten years ago and she still believed he chose the drink over his own daughter. It was sad, really, but he knew she'd never admit it or break down, she was a very private person, was Kate Beckett.

She laughed at his comment. "Well we know that isn't going to work. We both have such hectic work schedules that we'd never see each other. Anyway, you know the rules - personal attachments are never a good idea." Yes, her and Will had dated - only for about six months, after which he'd moved to Boston and she'd stayed in New York. She couldn't go with him, she wouldn't be able to hide her true profession from him - he wasn't an idiot, he'd figure it out eventually. And she had to do this. Had to hunt people. She'd joined the police academy not long after her mothers death, vowing to find whoever killed her. Seeing her passion and determination, she'd been recruited by then Detective, Roy Montgomery as a hit-woman. Taking all the tests and passing them with flying colours, she threw herself into it. Knowing how a murder could tear a family apart, she especially loved eliminating the scumbags that killed innocent people.

"Yeah, you're probably right. But remember this - no job is worth your happiness. The moment you find the one, tell me and you can be off this in an instant, go back to being a regular cop." She smiled at him, knowing he'd do pretty much anything for her, he was a brilliant man. "Anyway, got a new assignment for you. Nothing too challenging, should have it wrapped up in a day or two. File is in the top drawer of your desk, under the stationary. Commit it to memory and then usual procedures apply." And with that, he picked up his coffee and headed back to his office.

Kate walked back to her desk, and after checking no one was too close, pulled out the file and began to read.

* * *

Richard Castle had read and re-read the case file and then deleted it and wiped it from his hard drive - like it was never there. A requirement of the job was a brilliant memory - which Castle had.

Thinking over his strategy, he started to plan his mission. It was a ridiculously simple case, Cameron Johnson had been caught selling government secrets to the North Koreans and he had to be stopped. He didn't know they were onto him yet though - he thought he was meeting with his contact from North Korea, but his messages had been intercepted and American forces were going to drive him out of the city, where Castle would be waiting. Then, they'd get him out of the car and Castle would shoot from a safe distance. Simple. Well, it sounded it, but Castle knew any number of problems could arise and Johnson needed to be gone by the end of this week. What if he didn't turn up to the meeting? What if he escaped from their grasp? All things Castle had to plan for. Deciding the best way to figure out his target, he decided to follow Johnson for a few hours. The meeting was planned for 10am tomorrow morning - another 18 hours yet, so he wanted to make sure Johnson hadn't caught on to them and tried to escape. Remembering Johnson's details from the case file he'd read earlier, Castle grabbed his cell, keys and gun and headed out to the city below him.

* * *

Kate Beckett was also reading her case file. After retrieving it from her desk, she'd scanned the information as quickly as she could. It was pretty safe - to anyone else it just looked like she was reading a normal file, nothing odd about that. Once she'd committed it to memory, she took the file into the basement and put it in the box at the back. Closing the lid and pressing the button, she heard it whir to life. Less than a minute later and the file had been turned to liquid sludge. Pulling it out, she dumped it in the nearest trash can. It would be impossible for anyone to know what that used to be now. This was the best way they'd discovered of getting rid of these assignment files. It was the same machine they used to get rid of other police files that weren't to be found by anyone else so no one would think twice about her taking this one down.

The case was simple enough, she'd have it done by lunchtime tomorrow and be back in time to finish up paperwork on their latest homicide case. Looking at her watch, she saw it was 4.30pm. Well, the case was done for now, she might as well leave. Heading out of the basement, she called out a goodbye to her colleges, Esposito and Ryan and drove home to find out as much as she could about her newly acquired target.

Sitting back on the sofa, with her laptop in front of her, Beckett did a thorough background search on her target. 25 years old, lived in Syracuse with a boyfriend and worked for a local insurance firm. Parents both dead, they'd been killed whilst on a volunteer mission abroad 4 years ago. Easy enough, Beckett thought. Her target would be arriving on location around 11 tomorrow morning, by which time she would have had a chance to surround the area with infra-red cameras and plant a circle of land bombs - which when stood on would explode. There was no way she was letting her target escape.

Feeling optimistic about her case, she called her friend Lanie - the ME she worked with - and arranged to go out for dinner that evening. Then, she'd come home and be out early enough to get set up before her target arrived. She loved simple cases like this, made the difficult ones more worth it!

* * *

By 9.30 the next morning, Kate a Beckett was set up and ready to go - an hour and a half early. She always did this though, she didn't want her target arriving before she'd managed to get prepared enough. No, she'd arrived at 8am, planted the infra-red cameras that were linked up to her laptop - she'd be able to see then, where exactly her target was in relation to the cameras she'd placed along the route. And now, she was sitting on her motorbike - a '94 Harley Softail, her pride and joy - and waiting. The bombs had been placed at specified locations in the vicinity of where her target would be dropped off, meaning whichever way they turned, there was no way out. The security guys dropping the target off knew where they were and knew how to avoid them. It was a perfect set up - target dropped off, security drive away, Kate aims and fires, target eliminated. What could go wrong? An hour later, and she received a picture message - her target was on route.

At 10am, Richard Castle decided he'd better head to the location he'd been given to eliminate Johnson - didn't want the target arriving before him now, did he! Pulling up twenty minutes later, he scoured the area for anything suspicious and after finding nothing, he sat back in his car with his laptop, writing another chapter of the novel Gina was harassing him for. His gun was on the seat next to him and he had a perfect view of the point where Johnson was being dropped off - what could go wrong?

* * *

At 10:55, Kate grabbed her binoculars and did one last check of the area, she didn't need a civilian getting in the way. Searching round she thought she was safe until she spotted a car, parked almost directly opposite her. Zooming in slightly, she saw there was a man sat in the car, with a laptop in front of him. _No no no, this wasn't happening._ She had a someone to kill for crying out loud, she couldn't afford for a civilian to see what was going on - she'd have to kill him too! Looking at her watch, she saw it was 10:58. Glancing at her laptop, she noticed that her target was on their way up the dirt track towards her. _Shit_. Making a split second decision, she jumped from her bike and headed towards the centre, hiding behind the trees as she went. Thinking that the man in the car would just be there to get some piece and quiet with his laptop, she was a little shocked when she saw him put the laptop down and climb out if the car - with an M4A1 assault rifle in his other hand. _Double shit. Oh god, she was so totally screwed right now!_ Moving her eyes slightly to the right, she saw the car bringing her target was approaching - less than 30 seconds to make a decision. Did she leave? Or did she take out the target and go? Or take out the mystery man too? _Oh god_. Deciding her case was the most important thing, she waited until the security vehicle had started to drive away, before moving round the tree slightly to get a better view on her target. She'd decided to carry out the mission she was given and then hightail it back to the precinct and hope she wasn't seen. With this in mind, she found her target in her line of vision and pulled the trigger - at exactly the same time as the mystery man. _Oh crap_.

Wait? He'd heard another shot. Why had there been another shot, he'd only fired once? Glancing around, he saw a woman, dressed in a pair of black leather shorts and a black t-shirt sprinting away from him. _Uh oh_. Following her with his eyes, he saw her jump on a motorbike and head back towards the city. Memorising her number plate for later, he jumped climbed back into the car and went to see Gina.

* * *

Heading up to Gina's office on the forty seventh floor, which took forever, Castle was wringing his hands with nervousness. He couldn't be sure if the mystery woman had seen him and if she had..oh god he didn't even want to think about that.

Stepping out of the lift and walking towards Gina's office at the back, he felt like a naughty kid sent to see the headmaster at school. Opening the door to her office and closing it behind him. He took a deep breath before saying, "Gina, I think we have a problem."

Looking up at him, she could tell from his face that this was serious. "What happened?" She asked.

"Well, I was about to get eyes on Johnson when um, ah well the thing is, there was someone else there. I didn't realise until I heard her shoot at the same time as me and uh.." He trailed off.

"Wait, another assassin? Oh god this is not good. Please tell me you killed her too?" Gina pleaded.

"What? No! She got away before I really knew what was happening - I have the number plate of her motorbike though." He reeled it off and Gina typed it her computer.

After seeing the result, Gina knew this was bad. "Oh no, this is not going to end well.."

* * *

Racing back to the precinct, Kate parked her bike, rushed down an alley to put some slightly less revealing trousers on and changed out of her boots and into her heels - she needed to look like a cop again. She hopped in the lift and as soon as she reached her floor, practically ran into the captains office, ignoring the "hi Beckett" she got from Ryan.

Bursting through the door and slamming it shut behind her, she knew from the look on Montgomery's face that it wasn't good news. He put down the phone and ended the conversation he was having - presumably with his boss.

"Well. It seems there was some sort of mix up and two of you were sent to kill the same target." He said. "Wouldn't have been too much of a problem - I doubt the other guy got a clear view of your face, but unluckily for us, he got your number plate. That was the chief on the phone said he's already heard from a contact at a neighbouring firm and they've run your plate. They know who you are."

"So, what do we do?" Kate asked.

"The only thing we know how to do." Her captain replied. "We hunt and then we kill. Looks like you have a new assignment."

* * *

**_A/N: okay..thoughts? reviews make me very happy and I'd love to know what you think of this! Oh, and a gold star if you can figure out why Castles security number is 47313 (it's not very hard) but yeah, let me know what you thought!_**


	2. The Set Up

**_A/N: thank you for all the love on chapter one, you guys are brilliant! Well done if you got the 47313 bit right, I know __ did - yes 47 is 'their' number and 3x13 is when they had their first kiss and it's my absolute favourite! Anyway, here's chapter two!_**

* * *

"So," Castle asks, eyeing Gina warily. "Who is she?"

"Take a seat." Gina sighed, gesturing to the chair on the other side of her desk. "This could be fun." Ignoring the raised eyebrows Castle shoots in her direction, she waits until he's seated before starting to explain. "The plates are registered to a Katherine Beckett."

"Should I know her?" asks Castle. He didn't _think_ that name was in his little black book, could be wrong. Though, he'd probably remember someone with an ass like that who rode a Harley..wouldn't he?

"I don't think so," Gina said, interrupting his thoughts. "I don't recognise her anyway, but I've heard of her - she's bad news."

"Why? Who is she?"

"She's better known as Detective Kate Beckett - she works homicide down at the twelfth precinct."

"Okay.." Castle says slowly. "What aren't you telling me?"

"She's undercover. She trained as cop, joining the academy when she was fairly young - changed career path - she was originally pre-law at Stanford. Graduated top of her class and joined the twelfth as a rookie, became the youngest female to make Detective in NYPD history, beat the previous record by six weeks. During her time there, she was recruited by Roy Montgomery, her captain. However, he's undercover too, sort of like a male version of me. He gets the cases, passes them onto his agents - same as I do."

Castle didn't seem too fussed by this information. "Ok. Well I don't see how that makes her bad news? We've dealt with this kind of thing before, I'll just take her out and no one will know. Pass it off as a mugging gone wrong or something, I know what I'm doing!"

"Good luck with that." Gina muttered. "Look, Kate Beckett isn't just someone you can 'take out'. She's ruthless and determined and to this day she hasn't screwed up a case. You're the best I've ever had-" she groans at the double entendre, silencing him with a look when he tries to talk. "Don't flatter yourself Richard, I meant the best agent we've ever trained here. But Beckett? Wow, you've got nothing on her. I've heard her target count is at least quadruple yours, if not more. She's one of the best, quite possibly the best and this isn't going to be easy and I can't promise you aren't going to get hurt _but_ this is a problem now. You need to take her out."

"Right. Okay. Well where shall I start?" He asked, taking in the information he'd just been given.

"It's going to be a long one, this isn't a case you can just wrap up in a few days. You're going to have to get to know her, pretend to be interested in a case or something, say it's book research."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure that'll go down well. I highly doubt someone who's as good as you say she is will take me under her wing easily. I bet she eats children for breakfast." He shuddered.

"Well you could get yourself arrested and see if you could find her? But I can't promise I'll bail you out." Gina laughed. "Look, she's dangerous okay. But there was a major screw up with you both being given the same hit and if one of you isn't taken out, this whole thing could be over. And you never know, you might find some inspiration for that book I'm still waiting on."

"How dangerous is she, exactly?" He had a family to think about after all. All of his other cases, he'd gone into knowing he had the upper hand - not many were better than Richard Castle but it seems Kate Beckett was.

"She's...she's one to watch out for." Gina told him. She knew this could end badly for both of them. He was her best agent it's just that Kate Beckett was better. "Remember that body they found down by the river two months ago? The foreign official that had been so badly attacked it took four days to identify him?" Castle nodded. "That was her. Right in her own back yard, too. She probably had to investigate the case."

"He deserved it though." Castle stated.

"I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, we all know he did. But what I'm saying is that she's more dangerous than she looks."

"Yeah. From what I saw of her I wouldn't say she looked like she was capable of that.."

"Yeah, well knowing you as well as I do, you were probably looking with the wrong body part."

Castle remained silent. She had a point to be honest, but her ass in those shorts? _Damn_. "Yeah yeah whatever. Okay, give me everything you've got on her and I'll get started." He was going to get rid of her if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

"A new assignment? Wait, you want me to kill this guy?!" Kate asked her captain. "Surely that's a little extreme, I mean I don't even know who is his, didn't get a clear look at his face."

"Oh you know who he is alright." Her captain stated. "That man from this morning? His name is Richard Castle." Montgomery watched as the flow of recognition washed across Kate's face.

"_The_ Richard Castle?" She whispered.

"The one and only. Richard Castle is the name he uses for his books. He works for his publisher as a secret agent, using his mothers name - Richard Rogers."

"I, god. I can't kill Richard Castle!" Kate cried out.

"Look, Kate. I know how much you like the guys books and everything but you need to forget all of that. He's good at what he does, nothing on you of course but good all the same."

Kate couldn't believe this was happening. How is it she'd been out with Lanie for dinner last night and less than 24 hours later was being given the go ahead to kill her favourite author? This was ridiculous! "Come on, there's got to be another way around this..I mean the guy has a daughter and everything, a family!"

Montgomery had never seen Kate like this. She was usually so good at distancing herself from what she did, no emotions, she just got on with the job. It's what made her so extraordinary. But this one might be a problem.. "There _is_ no other way Kate. This is the only option. Now, if you really don't want the case I'll give it to someone else but I will warn you, chances are he's been given the same mission as you."

There was no way Kate was giving up that easily, favourite author or not. "Fine. I'll do it."

"Thought you might somehow." The captain smiled. Kate Beckett didn't back down without a fight. "It's not going to be easy, especially not with the chance he's out to kill you too. But we have an advantage - as far as we know, he doesn't know that you know who he is. So, if you can get him in here somehow, get some information from him and figure out a plan, you might be able to take him out without him ever knowing you were on to him."

Kate thought for a moment, an idea forming in her head. "Okay, I can do that. So, how did a bestselling author end up an assassin?" She asked.

"From what I have on him, it's his publisher, she runs a similar sort of thing to me and recruited him when she read one of his books. Said he had the makings of someone who could do it for real. Guess we know now that that's why his books are so authentic." He let out a small laugh. "He's one of the best in the country but you - you're _the_ best in the country, possibly the world. It's not going to be without challenges Kate but I know you, I know you can do this."

"Okay." Kate couldn't believe this was happening. She'd learnt to never underestimate anybody but Richard Castle? Never saw that one coming. But if there was one thing Kate Beckett could do, it was lure in her prey before killing it. She'd done it hundreds of times and she had to put all emotional attachment to his books to one side and focus on the job at hand. She knew she'd only have one opportunity to do this and this was the first case she'd ever been given that actually worried her. She'd always been so overly confident in her abilities before but this time, she knew she might not make it out alive. She'd be damned if she didn't give it her best shot though. "Give me everything you can get on him. I've got paperwork to finish off from yesterday's case but as soon as I get home tonight I'll get to work." She stood up to leave.

"Brilliant. And Kate?" She turned to him from the door. "Good luck." She smiled back at him before heading out into the bullpen.

* * *

That night, curled up in bed with her laptop, Kate read everything Montgomery had sent her on Castle. She knew the basics, the man practically lived his life on page six after all, but this was a file on the man behind the pictures. He had a pretty good history - only let two of his targets get away, better than most. Not better than Kate though, given that she had a 100% success rate. _And that's the way I'm keeping it_, she thought.

She had a plan - one that was sure to get him into the precinct and then she could scope him out for real. Get a feel for how he worked. Given that he didn't think she thought he was anything but an author, it should give her the upper hand in the case. But he wasn't to be underestimated, he was almost as good as she was. No, this wouldn't be easy but then again, Kate Beckett wasn't easy either.

* * *

Twenty blocks away, Richard Castle was doing some research of his own. He'd read the file from Gina and it made for some interesting reading. Kate Beckett was not a woman to be messed with. He thought it was odd when Gina had said she was at college in California but ended up being a cop here, and her file explained why. Turns out Joanna Beckett, Kate's mother had been murdered ten years ago and her killer was never caught. He'd take a wild guess and say that the reason Katherine Beckett gave up a promising law career was to get justice for those who's lives were turned upside down, and quite possibly to avenge her mother. _Hmm_, he thought, _now that could make an interesting story. _Perhaps he'd kill Derrick Storm off and write a new set of novels with a strong female protagonist instead..

His biggest concern was how he was going to get close to her. Gina had suggested getting himself arrested, but given that she was a homicide detective, he'd have to murder someone and be caught to get anywhere near her. And given that he only killed those who deserved it and under Gina's orders, that wasn't really an option. Her other suggestion was that he ask to follow her around for book research. That wasn't a bad idea, really, he just didn't think he'd be able to convince Beckett of that option. _Ooo_, he thought, _perhaps I could use my friendship with the mayor.._

* * *

However, calling the mayor was unnecessary - the next morning Richard Castle found himself in the interrogation room of the twelfth precinct with none other than Kate Beckett herself. She was in Detective mode today though - she'd replaced the shorts with a pair of plain black trousers, much to Castles disappointment.

"So, Mr Castle. Thank you for coming in at such short notice, I'm sure you have a million and one better places to be this morning." She said with a smile. Kate was playing nice cop, didn't need to give him any reason to believe she was onto him. As far as he was aware, she didn't know who he really was.

"Oh that's not a problem Detective," he replied with a smile of his own. "Anything to help the city I love! So, what can I do for you today?"

She sat down opposite him and placed a file on the table, pulling out what looked like crime scene photos. "Well. I've been working on a case and something struck me late last night. You see, this-" she slid a photo over towards him "is how we found one of our victims. As I'm sure you can see, her body was led out in a way that the murder victim from your novel Flowers for your Grave was. And this-" she said, sliding another photo to him, "is how we found our second victim. Similar to the crime scene in Hell Hath No Fury."

"Ah, so you're a fan of my books I see?" He said. Smiling as she blushed slightly.

Deciding it'd be easier to keep him onside if she agreed, Kate thought sweet talk would be the best option. "Uh, yes I am as a matter of fact. You have a great talent." She said sweetly. The guy was an egomaniac, feeding his ego with words like this would make him much more vulnerable to attack. Jesus, he was almost a rookie, falling for it like a child.

Looking into her eyes, Castle could tell she thought she was being clever by complimenting him. He could just imagine the thoughts in her head at this point, praising herself on making him look like he was just some playboy author that didn't know anything about the real world. He had the upper hand, he knew who she really was and to her, he was just an author. He'd take her out here and now if he could, but he didn't fancy 20 cops bursting in on him. No, when he killed Kate Beckett it would be somewhere private and secluded, so he could make his getaway before anyone even realised she was missing.

"Thank you, always nice to meet a fan. And uh, seems I have a slightly deranged one if people are being murdered like that."

"Yes, it would seem so."_ His eyes. God they were so blue. _He was rather handsome if she was being honest. _No. Drop it Kate, you have a job to do and the only time you should be up close and personal with him is when you're putting a bullet in his brain. _"Erm, do you recognise either of them?" She hoped she wasn't blushing at the thoughts she'd been having.

"No, can't say I do I'm afraid. But I'd be happy to stay and lend a hand if you think it might help?" He offered.

Kate considered his offer for a minute. Him staying around might help her, she could try and gauge how much he knew about her, slowly feeding him false information and seeing how he reacted. "Sure, if you don't mind?" She smiled at him.

"Not at all." He smiled back.

"Great, well I have officers bringing in a suspect and we'll wait and see what that brings but if not, we can go over the evidence together, see if there's anything else relating to your books. Wanna go grab a coffee?" He agreed and they headed into the empty break room. Pouring them both a cup of coffee, she joined him at the table. "So, can I ask questions? Given that I'm a fan and everything?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Sure, can't give anything away though." He replied with a heart stopping smile.

_God had he really fallen for that? _Men_. So simple_. "Of course not. So, what made you want to become a writer?" She asked, giving him a coy smile. If her acting like some bimbo trying to get in his pants got her information then that's what she'd do.

"When I was younger, someone gave me a copy of Casino Royale, you know the James Bond book. I was hooked on it and from that day I knew I wanted to be a writer. Knew I wanted to help people get lost for a little while." He said. "So, can I ask you a question now?"

"Sure." She said. She'd hoped this would happen.

"You always want to be a cop? Never want to be anything else?"

_Bingo_. This is where it got interesting - Kate would give him a false answer and see how he reacted. Given his case history he was probably extremely good at acting, but she was better and she could figure out a lie from pretty much anyone. "Yeah, ever since I was three. I was out with my parents and I got separated from them in the crowds, a police officer helped me find them and I knew one day that's what I wanted to do. The homicide bit came later, saw a story on the news appealing for information about a murder when I was about 17, and that's when I decided I wanted to work homicide." She lied easily.

That was a lie and Castle knew it. He'd read her file, knew she was pre-law. He couldn't let her know he was onto her though. "Oh that's cute, guess some people are born to do certain things!" He said.

Kate smiled at him, she could tell he knew she was lying. His nose had twitched when he gave his response. So, he'd read her file, knew she hadn't always wanted to be a cop, but he wasn't letting on. _Time to play. _Leaning in close to him, she whispered, "you know, most people wouldn't have noticed, but that little nose twitch you did? Totally your tell. So, wanna tell me how much you really know?"

He reeled back in shock. _Shit, she knew more than he thought_. "Ah, so you uh, did see me then?" He said, deciding playing dumb wasn't really worth it.

"Oh I saw you alright. Turning up to take out my target."

"What makes you say he was yours? I got the assignment too."

"Yeah, but I was there a good two hours before you, I set up infra-red cameras and land bombs surrounding the area and you turn up at the last minute to wing it!" She hissed.

"What can I say, we work in different ways." He said with a cocky grin.

_God he was infuriating_. "So. What next? You gonna kill me in my sleep? Poison my coffee?" She asked.

"Oh no detective, I've heard stories about you and I know you're not that stupid. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to this one, I've been needing new material for my next novel.."

"Oh yeah? Shame you won't be alive to write it." She sneered.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that. You haven't killed me yet, have you? I've been here at least an hour and it's pretty quiet. Surely you could have just stuck a knife in my heart and left me to die, but you haven't." He pointed out.

"No, and you know why? Because I'm looking forward to this one just as much as you." They both stood and she leaned in close to him. "So bring it on, writer-boy. Show me what you're made of."

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Oh trust me sweetheart, you ain't seen nothin' yet." And with that, he winked at her and walked out of the precinct.

Kate leaned back and smiled. She'd give him an hour and then she'd go after him, the secret tracking device she'd planted in his jacket letting her know his wherabouts.

* * *

Getting back to his loft, Castle realised something - he never did find out if they caught the guy killing pepole like out of his books. After sending a quick text to Gina asking for Kate's cellphone number, he text her and waited for her reply. His cell buzzed a few moments later. "I made it up." It read. "The photos were faked and no one is killing people like your books. Guess your fans aren't that deranged after all. Except maybe me ;)" He grinned. _God she was good_.

* * *

_**A/N: so, what do you think? I'm enjoying writing this so I hope you're enjoying reading it!**_


	3. The First Chance

**_A/N: thank you sooooo much for all your reviews, you're all lovely! I hope you enjoy chapter three!_**

* * *

Knowing Castle was back at his apartment, Kate decided to catch up on some paperwork before following him. Better to get this case done and dusted so she could focus completely on Castle. She knew the captain would cover for her with Esposito and Ryan, it's one of the reasons she worked alone and those two were partners - it meant she could disappear off and the captain would say she was chasing leads on another case or something.

There was still one thing bothering Kate though - _why_ did she have to kill Castle and vice versa? Surely they could just say they wouldn't reveal each other's true identity - she couldn't exactly tell everyone Richard Castle was a highly trained assissin. First off, no one would believe her and second, people would probably realise that she 'knew' because she was one too or they'd think she was a raving lunatic. She'd never had a 'personal' connection to a case before but she knew who this guy was. The people she normally killed deserved it - Castle? He was one of the good guys. Deciding she needed answers, she paid a visit to her captain who was sat in his office.

Montgomery looked up as Kate walked in. "Kate, hi. Heard Richard Castle was in earlier, how did you manage that?" He asked.

"Well I just told him he had a copycat killer, someone stealing his book ideas. Made up some fake crime scene photos and the guy lapped it up." _Egotistical jackass_.

"Oh I bet he did!" Her captain chuckled. "Well done Kate, that was a brilliant move, I'm proud of you."

Kate blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, Sir. And we're both on the same page now. I figured he'd read my file so fed him some false information and he pretended to buy it, could tell he was lying though."

"Remind me never to play poker with you." Montgomery muttered.

"So we established who we were and we both know each other's game now. But uh, I was wondering why?"

Montgomery looked perplexed. "Why what?"

"Why do we have to kill each other? We're both on the same side aren't we? Why can't we just say we'll forget about it and carry on as normal?" She questioned. Honestly, she didn't want to be responsible for the death of a bestselling author. Especially not one she was a fan of.

"Oh. That. Uh, yeah.." Kate got the feeling her captain hadn't been entirely honest with her about this case. "You better take a seat, I've got a feeling you'll have some questions after I tell you this." Kate sat. "Well, the order for this hit on Johnson came from the chief himself - Johnson had been dating the chiefs son and when he found out what Johnson was up to, he wasn't best pleased. Even less pleased when he found out what had happened. I hadn't told you this but Johnson isn't dead, yet."

"What?" Kate gasped. "But..but we both shot at him, surely two bullets to the heart would kill him?"

"Well I think given that you and Mr Castle were both slightly distracted at the appearance of each other, both of your shots missed his heart by half a mm each. Security forces came back for proof of his termination and found he still had a very faint pulse. They aren't allowed to finish the job, so they called for an ambulance and left. Johnson is currently in the intensive care unit at Lenox Hill Hospital on the upper east side."

"Well what happens now then? Do we kill Johnson first?" Kate asked.

"No, chief thinks it'll be too hard to get away with it. So instead, he's making you and Castle pay for it by taking out one another."

"And if we don't? If we refuse?"

"Then the chief will find a way to make the rest of your lives a living hell."

"Well," Kate said after a short pause, "guess I'll have to find a new favourite author then. There's no way I'm letting him get one over on me."

Montgomery breathed a sigh of relief. "Be careful out there, Kate. This could destroy everything you've ever worked for. I don't want to lose you, god you've become almost like a daughter to me, but I'm not naive enough to believe you'll be fine. Just promise me you'll do the best you can?"

"I always do, Sir, this one will be no different."

"I know you do, Kate. And given the importance of this one, I'm excusing you from all homicide cases until this is over. Don't worry about coming in, I'll tell Esposito and Ryan that you've had a family emergency or something, I'm sure they've learnt enough from you to manage on their own for a while." He said, a twinkle in his eye.

"Thank you, Sir. I promise I won't let you down." And with that she walked out if his office and headed out of the precinct. She had an author to kill.

* * *

Checking Castle was still at his apartment using the tracking device she'd planted on him, Kate exited the precinct and hailed a cab and asked him to drop her off four blocks away from Castle's place. She didn't need the cabbie being questioned and giving her away. She knew her department would figure out alibis for her and fake CCTV footage to 'prove' she hadn't been there if necessary, but she liked to be thorough.

Walking the remaining few blocks, Kate reached her first problem - there was a doorman. She stopped around the corner to think. She could take him out, but she didn't really want to do that. She might be a killer, but she had a conscience. Making her decision, she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt and fluffed her hair a bit. _Nothing better than a woman who could use her looks as a disguise but still kick a guys ass_.

"Hi." She said to the doorman, fluttering her eyelashes. _Well, it worked on Castle_. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett with the NYPD." She flashed him her badge, deciding he might be more likely to let her up if she told him she was a police officer. "One of my uh, _friends_, Rick Castle, lives in this building and I wanted to surprise him..haven't seen him in a long time and I was hoping you'd let me up without calling him first..he does love a good surprise." She looked at him from under her eyelashes and sent him a flirtatious smile.

He hesitated for a minute before letting her up. "Oh go on then, since you're with the police and all."

"Thank you so much, he is going to _love_ this!" She replied excitedly, walking towards the lift. The doorman blatantly thought she was a stripper/prostitute but right now she didn't really care. Heading up to Castle's apartment, she pulled out her gun and took the safety off. She had a back up on her ankle and a knife hidden around her thigh. _Plus a damn good right hook._

Reaching the door of his apartment, she pressed her ear to it to determine any noise. Didn't sound like anyone else was there. Turning the knob slowly, she found it unlocked. _Idiot_. She crept in slowly, glancing around for any sign of movement. Reaching the lounge, she still hadn't seen him. Suddenly, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Swirling round, she saw him stood in the doorway to his office, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

"You took your time." He said. "Thought you would have been here a lot sooner than this."

Kate didn't reply. She just aimed her gun and shot at him. But he was too fast - with lightning quick reflexes, he'd dodged her bullet and hidden behind the bookshelf on the other side of the wall. Taking a chance, she shot at the wall, only to find the bullet not passing through.

"Bullet proof reinforcements." She heard him call from the other side. "If you want me, you'll have to come and get me." He chided.

_Damn him._ Striding towards the open door, gun raised, Kate looked for him. Not spotting him anywhere, she headed toward the door on the other side of the room, leading to his bedroom. Just as she was about to walk through the door, she heard a noise from behind her. Turning round she saw him - gun raised and pointing at her. She ducked and rolled into his bedroom, hiding behind the wall just as she heard the bullet whoosh over her head. _That was close. Too close._ Chancing a look back into his office, she saw him still standing in the same position, looking slightly in awe of her. _Ha_, she thought smugly. _Serves him right_. Taking another shot at him, she missed by inches, the bullet landing somewhere among the books on the shelves.

"Oh you'll have to do better than that if you want me dead, Beckett." He teased and she heard him move out into the living room. Less walls to hide behind.

She slowly followed him out, trying to find where he was hiding. Spotting his reflection in the fridge door, she headed towards the kitchen. He leapt up and took a shot at her, missing because he lost his balance slightly, the bullet landing in the floor behind her.

"Maybe you need some stabilisers, _writer-boy_." She said with a smirk, gun still raised.

"Oh trust me, give me a night with you and you'll be changing that 'boy' to 'man', honey." He replied cockily.

She took another shot for his arrogance just as he ducked back down behind the counter. _This was ridiculous_. Neither of them were getting any good shots in, just half-hearted attempts. "Okay, well you win - for now. Guess I wouldn't want your daughter getting home to find your dead body anyway. Come find me when you're ready to play with the big boys and girls." And she strode over to the door and walked out of his apartment, leaving a slightly shocked Richard Castle still sat with his back against the kitchen counter.

* * *

Castle didn't know what to do. That shoot out he'd just had with Kate was ridiculous and they both knew it. Neither of them had taken it particularly seriously - except maybe her shot when he told her she'd be calling him writer-_man_ after a night together. He chuckled. He probably deserved that one. If she wanted him dead she could have shot when he'd lost his balance in the kitchen. And then she'd just stood there for a couple of minutes, he could have easily got a shot on her then.

But they didn't and it's because this case was different. Usually, they went out hunting the bad guys, but this time the good guys were hunting each other. He wasn't sure he could do it. After only meeting her twice he could tell she was pretty amazing. God, the woman could be a supermodel, she was gorgeous. And the fact that she knew how to use a gun like that and fight? Well that made her so much hotter. And he knew how good she was at her job, it seemed such a shame to try and kill her. Not that he was going to give in. Oh no, he'd give her a good fight. It'd just be a little sad watching the life drain out of her eyes rather than the usual sense of satisfaction he got.

Standing up from the kitchen floor, he tried to cover up any bullet holes his mother or Alexis might see. They were pretty well hidden so he should be safe. As long as the neighbours didn't hear anything. Then again, there were no sirens outside so the neighbours probably just thought it was his mother with one of her strange acting exercises again. Wouldn't be the first time.

His mind falling back to Kate, he knew he needed a plan. He couldn't let personal judgment stand in the way of this. He'd read the email from Gina, knew why he had to do this - it was for Alexis and his mother. But he couldn't help but wonder if he'd met Kate Beckett under different circumstances, if they could have made a go if it? He could tell from her eyes and the couple of times she'd blushed around him that she had a slight interest and it would have been nice to see if that could lead anywhere..oh well. Time to start thinking with the right body part as Gina would say.

* * *

Kate had headed back to her apartment, deciding to walk the twenty or so blocks to clear her head. Once she got home, she stripped her clothes off and headed into the shower. Standing under the hot stream of water, she had a lot of time to think. She couldn't believe how badly that attempt had gone. But she knew neither of them had seriously been into it. It seemed as though he felt the same as her - it was harder taking out the people on your team. But she had to do this. She'd heard about the chief and knew the kind of power he had. She _needed_ Richard Castle dead.

Stepping out of the shower she threw on a dressing gown and wrapped her hair up in her towel. Heading into the kitchen, she made herself a cup of tea and sat on the couch with her thoughts. She needed plan, one that would work - but she didn't have a huge amount of ideas. The only one she thought might possibly work was if she went over there and tried to call a truce - dressed in her shortest dress, a pair of skyscraper heels and hair and make up done too. She wasn't above using her looks to get her own way. Like her mother had always said when she was younger - "_a woman should know how to look like a girl, act like a lady and think like a man." _And it's not as if Richard Castle was that bad, there's worse people she could come on too..oh who was she kidding, the man was gorgeous. If she wasn't trying to kill him she'd be trying to get him into bed so why shouldn't she do both? She could strap her knife around her thigh, wait until he was a little _compromised_ and then go in for the kill.. First she had a to find an outfit that would stop him realising she was just trying to distract him.

* * *

Three hours later it was getting dark, and Kate decided now was her best time to strike. Hailing her second cab of the day to Richard Castle's apartment, she got him to stop a little closer this time. She couldn't walk far in these heels.

She'd slipped into a _very_ tight black leather-look dress, and finished it off with a pair of pillar box red patent stilettos. With knickers, of course, she had a bit of class. She'd added a few curls to her long chestnut hair and matched her lips to her shoes to complete her look. Giving the phrase _'dressed to kill'_ a whole new meaning.

Paying the cabbie who looked like Christmas had come early, she guessed her outfit was doing the job. Good.

Luckily, the doorman had changed since earlier so she could come up with a new story, if she needed one. Always better to change it up a bit. "Hi there." She said in a sultry voice.

"Evening, Madam. May I ask who you're hear to see?" He spluttered out. Her outfit must be doing the trick.

"Richard Castle in 425, he's expecting me. Okay if I go up?"

"Sure. You have a good night now." He said, eying her up as she walked to the lift for the second time that day. She couldn't believe he'd let her in so easily, she hadn't even shown him her badge! _Perhaps she'd start dressing like this as a cop.._

Standing outside his door again, she decided knocking was better this time, given that she was 'here to call a truce.' Raising her hand, she curled it into a fist and knocked three times. A few moments later, the door swung open - revealing who Kate knew to be Castle's fifteen year old daughter, Alexis. _Shit_.

"Hi." The girl said. "Can I help you?"

* * *

**_A/N: so, thoughts? Sorry for the fairly short chapter..I normally aim for around 3500 words per chapter but I knew I wanted this chapter to end here so I'm leaving it at 2900!_**


	4. Frustration

**_A/N: so someone left a review saying it would seem a bit harsh for Kate to do to Alexis what someone did to her and I have thought about it but I'm still going ahead with the story as planned..and by as planned, I mean don't give up yet, I promise I won't kill everyone off! Also, someone pointed out that Castle's apartment number might be wrong, but after researching it I found like four different numbers on different websites etc, so went with the most common! But to be honest, it's just an apartment number so I don't see it being a problem. _****_But thank you for all of your reviews so far!_**

* * *

_"Hi." The girl said. Can I help you?"_

* * *

Oh god. Kate didn't know what to do. She could turn and walk away, saying she had the wrong apartment but she never backed down. But then again, she could hardly try and seduce and kill the man with his daughter in the house! "Err yeah, hi.." She stuttered. "I'm um, Detective Beckett with the NYPD..your um, dad? He helped me with a case the other day and I was just popping over to um see if he had any more information about it.." She trailed off.

Alexis seemed fine with this story, giving her a smile and opening the door to let her in. "Sure, come in. I'll tell him you're here." Alexis closed the door behind Kate and went into her fathers office to tell him he had company. Emerging a few seconds later, Richard Castle followed her, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw what Kate was wearing.

"Detective! Uh, hi! Please, take a seat." He said, pointing towards the sofa.

"Sorry to drop by unannounced like this..I was just on my way out to meet some friends and er, thought I'd pop in first." She lied. God this was not going to plan. She really didn't want to have to sit here for the next hour and pretend to be talk about a case she'd made up.

"Oh no, that's fine! A nice distraction actually..trying to finish this book for my _publisher_." He emphasised the word 'publisher' slightly knowing full well that Kate would know by now that Gina was not _just_ his publisher.

"Well," interrupted Alexis, "I'm off now anyway, going to meet some friends in the city for dinner. It was nice to meet you Detective." She said, sending Kate another smile. "Bye daddy." She said to her father, reaching up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye pumpkin, have fun with your friends and don't stay out too late!" He replied as she walked out of the apartment.

Once Alexis had gone, they were silent for a few minutes, neither of them seeming to know what to say.

"Jesus, Kate, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Castle said, finally breaking the silence. "That..that dress you're wearing, if you can even call it a dress..my god."

Kate smirked slightly to herself. Good, her plan was working. "Well, I guess you having a heart attack could've saved me a problem. Perhaps I should have turned up in my underwear.." She teased.

"Stop. Just stop talking or I swear to god.." He growled.

"What, Rick? What will you do?" She said breathily. She was flirting with him and he knew it.

"This." He hauled her up by her arms so she was standing and attached his lips to her.

His kiss was rough, hungry and she couldn't tear herself away, she wanted more. She wanted him. _No. No! Stop it, Kate, you need to be in control..not him_. Using all her inner strength, she pulled away and slapped him. Hard.

"Ow!" He exclaimed, raising his hand to his cheek. "What the hell was that for?!"

"What do you think it was for, jackass?" She spat out.

"Well maybe if you hadn't shown up in that _dress_ with legs that go on for _miles_ and flirted with me, I would have been able to resist you." _Just about_. God, even in her detective clothes she was practically irresistible. _This was the worst case ever._

"Oh so it's my fault? I'm sorry, but you're not blaming _me_ for _you_ not being able to control yourself. Like I told you, I'm heading out to meet friends." _Liar_. "But I wanted to come and run something by you first." After that, she was abandoning her earlier plan. She could hardly try and seduce him when he kissed her first. And seeing Alexis had put her off kilter too.

He gave her a perplexed look. "Erm, have you forgotten we're supposed to trying to kill each other? What could you possibly want to run by me?" He asked.

"Well, um you see I was thinking and this..this whole thing is just stupid." She glanced up at him from under her lashes, trying to look as innocent as possible. "Why don't we um, just call a truce. Say we won't kill each other..we're um, both on the same side after all.." She looked at him expectantly, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.

Castle glanced down at her mouth before sinking down onto the sofa with a muttered "fuck." He put his head in his hands and thought for a moment. He didn't want to kill her, god she was right - they were on the same team. But he'd read the email from Gina, he knew what they'd do to Alexis and his mother if one of them wasn't killed.

Beckett was torn. She had the perfect opportunity now. She could slip her hand up her dress, pull out her weapon and plunge it into his heart. It'd be over in minutes and she could move on. On the other hand, meeting his daughter had just reiterated the magnitude of this case. Killing Richard Castle would leave that adorable teenager without a father. She knew better than most what it was like to live without a parent. So, without another word, she left him thinking on the couch, walked out of the apartment and hailed a cab to the precinct.

* * *

In his office at the twelfth precinct, Roy Montgomery was sitting at his desk in a very similar position to how Beckett had just left Castle. With his head in his hands, he let out a big sigh, confused about what to do. Beckett was right, she shouldn't have to kill Castle and he shouldn't have to try and kill her - they were both the good guys here.

He'd just put down the phone to the chief, desperately trying to figure out another way around this. But news had come in from the hospital just an hour ago - Johnson was showing signs of improvement now and was expected to make a slow but full recovery. The newspapers had gotten a hold of the story, which meant killing Johnson undetected would now be virtually impossible. This was not something the chief was happy about. In fact it had made him madder than ever and he'd taken out on Montgomery. Said if he'd done his research properly then he wouldn't have sent Kate to a hit with another assassin. The chief had then gone on to reiterate what would happen to both Kate and Castle if one of them failed to complete the mission. And it wasn't even something he'd wish upon his worst enemy. It might seem ridiculous, the way in which the chief was acting, but that's what happens when you have more money than you could ever spend, more businesses than you know how to run and none of that comes without making a hell of a lot of enemies along the way. However with great power comes great responsibility and the chiefs way of retaliating was to have those who had committed the worst crimes killed. Oh how the other half live..

Picking up the phone again, he dialled the number that would put him through to Gina. They were both actually quite good friends, but kept it quiet from everyone else so their paths didn't get muddled. A few moments later, she picked up.

"Roy, hi. What can I do for you?" She said.

"Hi, Gina. Look, it's this mission you've sent Castle on-"

"Ah, the one involving your star pupil?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's the one. It just doesn't seem right.."

Gina sighed. "Yes I know what you mean, they aren't a danger to each other! But I don't see anyway around it. I had a rather explicit email from the chief himself exploring his reasons behind this and the consequences if it's not carried out the way he wants."

"Yeah I've just spoken to him again, made it crystal clear that he wasn't budging on this one. I haven't told Kate the exact details he gave me, don't want to worry her anymore, but she knows what he's capable of." Montgomery said.

"I toned it down a little for Richard too, but he knows what's at stake. And from what you've told me about Kate, she isn't going to back down."

"No, she won't she's as stubborn as a mule, that one. But she's also got a heart of gold, and this won't be easy for her."

"No, it won't be an easy one for Richard either." She replied. "I guess we'll just have to leave them to sort it on their own..but I don't see anyone being happy with whatever result we end up with."

"No, Gina. Neither do I.." Roy said, ending their phone call.

Deciding he better get home to his family, Montgomery packed up his things and headed out of the empty precinct, avoiding bumping into Kate by less than a minute.

* * *

Riding the lift up to her floor, Kate prayed that it was empty. As the doors opened, she breathed a sigh of relief but couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that her colleagues were at home with their families or out with friends and she was contemplating how to kill her favourite author. Slumping down at her desk she thought paperwork might take her mind off of it, but looking around she found that Esposito and Ryan had finished it off. She smiled to herself, they were both great detectives and she was lucky to have two brilliant people to work with. They certainly made her job a little more fun sometimes.

Hearing the lift ping again as it reached the floor, Beckett was on instant alert. No one else should be here..as the doors opened, her heart sunk. Richard Castle had followed her here.

"How did you know where I was?" She asked.

"You're not the only one who can plant a tracking device you know. Took full advantage of your, uh, _relaxed_ state and attached it to the back of your dress." He said with a smirk. He actually looked quite pleased with himself that she hadn't found it.

Beckett rolled her eyes. She should have known. Removing the said device from the bottom hem of her dress, she said: "Well. What are you doing here?" A small part of her hoped he'd come to tell her she was right and they could stop this stupid game.

"I came to talk." He said, pulling up a chair and sitting next to her desk. He leaned over so that he was just inches from her face. "Maybe you were right..maybe we should stop. Forget about it. Move on. It'll be hard, but we're both good at what we do, surely we can stop whatever it is the punishment might be?" He stood up. "So, what do you say Detective?" He held out his right hand. "Truce?"

Kate was frozen in shock. Did he actually just ask if they could call a truce? Wait, that's what she was planing on doing when she went over to see him earlier this evening..and that was a trap. How could she be sure that he wasn't playing her? Only one way to find out.. Extending her hand to shake his, she replied: "sure, why not."

As they shook hands, Castle looked her directly in the eyes. He gripped her hand a little harder and then harder still before yanking her closer to him. Twisting her arm around behind her back he pushed her forward so she had to brace herself on her left hand to stop herself falling face first onto the desk. He leant down to whisper in her ear. "Bad luck, Kate. Shouldn't have fallen for that one."

He thought he had her, for good, but he underestimated just who he was dealing with. Swinging her left hand back around, she elbowed him in the abdomen, smirking as she heard his grunt of pain. She stepped her right foot back, stomping a spiky stiletto heel into his foot and he loosened his grip on her right hand. Yanking it away from his grip, she spun around, pushed him backwards and swung her right fist towards his face, grinning as it hit his jaw with a resounding thud. Castle yelled out in pain and brought his hand up to cup his jaw, muttering under his breath.

"What was that, Ricky? Didn't quite hear what you said." She laughed.

"Of all the women I meet and I end up with one that fights back." He said in a disgruntled voice.

"Ah yes, I forgot. You're used to dainty little princesses who spend daddy's money and wouldn't know the meaning of the word 'work' if the dictionary was opened on the right page in front of them."

"Why Katie, are you jealous?"

She stiffened. "Don't call me that." She said. "Call me whatever the hell you want, but not that. Please."

There was something in her eyes and the way she said that last sentence that stopped Castle from teasing her further. Instead, he took advantage of her not paying full attention and pushed her up against the wall next to the doors of the lift, with her front pressed hard against his and her wrists pinned against the wall above her head by his hand. She gasped at him, annoyed at herself for letting him take control again. "Oh look, I've got the upper hand, again." He teased.

With all her strength, Kate pulled her knee up and didn't stop until it made contact with his - wait, that wasn't his crotch. That was his hand. He'd anticipated her move and used his free hand to stop her before she did some serious damage. She honestly didn't know how she was going to get out of this one...she'd been in similar situations before, but never with someone who could fight back as well as Castle could. And never with someone who made her think it was time to throw all of this in and settle down and have childr- wait, _what_?

But before she could explore that thought further, Castle was doing some exploring of his own. The hand that had stopped her knee was currently drawing a rather tantalising path up her inner thigh. His eyes shot to hers in disbelief when he found the knife tightly strapped just below her underwear. "Do you have any idea how fucking sexy that is?" He growled in her ear, causing her to blush slightly.

And that's when Kate realised she could quite possibly have less than a minute to live. He could pull out that knife and finish her off before she knew what was happening. He was in complete control, she'd wriggled and squirmed but couldn't get out of the grasp he had on her wrists and the close proximity of his hand to her panties was weakening her mental state by the second. _Think, Kate. Think_. She couldn't let her captain find her dead body when he came in tomorrow morning, she'd promised him she would do her best.

Suddenly, she remembered the only thing that had distracted Castle so far - _her_. Before she could second think her decision, she put it to the test and hoped it would work. "Oh _god_, Castle. _Please_.." She moaned, moving her hips towards his hand as if searching for him.

The hand that had been drawing small circles on her inner thigh stopped abruptly and he stared at her. Panting slightly and with a pleading look in her eyes, Castle wondered what had just happened and less than ten seconds later he was wondering the same thing again. In his moment of confusion, she had slipped free of his grasp and dashed across to the other side of the bullpen. Reaching under her dress, she pulled the knife from it's hiding place.

Castle sensed what her plan was. He pressed the button for the lift and dashed inside, closing the doors behind him at the same moment that Kate threw the knife with the aim of a practiced professional. Just as the doors clicked shut, he heard the knife make contact with the outside of them - he'd only just escaped.

Kate groaned in frustration - of the sexual and the annoyed kind. That distraction she'd used to get away hadn't been too hard to fake, ten more seconds and it would have been for real. She couldn't believe how she reacted to him. She'd never felt like this with anyone - not even Will. That was the closest they'd come to actually finishing off though, no pun intended. If he hadn't believed her little distraction then she could quite easily be dying in a heap on the floor right now. And if he hadn't been quite so quick to figure out her plan, he could have given the night guard downstairs the shock of his life. _Ugh_.

She sat back at her desk for a good fifteen minutes before pulling out her cell phone and she brought up Montgomery's number on the screen. Hitting the dial button, she waited for him to answer. After ringing a few times, it went to voicemail. Huh, that was odd, Montgomery always answered his phone, no matter the time. Deciding she'd leave a message and wait for him to get back to her, she waited for the tone and then said: "Roy, it's me. Just..call me when you get this, whatever the time. I'm just..oh god, I don't know if I can do this."

* * *

Over at Roy Montgomery's house, the phone beeped, alerting him to one new voice message. Picking it up, he listened to the message, groaning when he heard Kate's voice. Putting the phone back down, he stared at the view in front of him. Richard Castle was standing over Roy Montgomery's unconscious body.

* * *

**_A/N: so, what do you think? Reviews so far have been brilliant so I hope you're still enjoying the story!_**


	5. Revenge

**_A/N: left the last chapter on a bit of a cliffhanger, eh?! There's a reason for it, I promise! Just a little warning - there's a bit of violence and strong language in this chapter, but it's nothing major and I think T is still the right rating._**

* * *

Still at the precinct, Beckett was agitated. She didn't want to leave and end up running into Castle in the lobby or something..but she couldn't stay here forever either. Montgomery not answering his phone wasn't helping either, he always answered. Her gut was telling Beckett that something was wrong, so she headed back to her apartment to change before making a trip to see her captain.

* * *

Over at Montgomery's house, Castle didn't know what to do. He could tell from the tone in Kate's voice in the message he'd just listened to that she wasn't up to her best right now. She'd sounded worried, concerned even about having to kill him. _Might have just made that easier, _he thought to himself. He had a strong feeling Kate would be over here sometime soon and he didn't particularly want to be found here like this..

45 minutes later and Kate was heading up the driveway towards Montgomery's house. She'd changed into skinny jeans and a plain white t-shirt with her black leather jacket. She didn't exactly think turning up to her boss' house in a dress small enough for a barbie doll was appropriate.

* * *

Opening his eyes suddenly, Roy Montgomery didn't know where he was. It took him a minute to realise he was lying down on his living room floor with some inexplicable pain radiating from his lower abdomen. Raising his head slightly - sending more waves of pain through his body - he could see a single gun shot wound and a lot of blood. Groaning, he placed his head back on the floor. _Kate_. He needed to speak to her, he knew he didn't have long left and he thanked god his family were out of town at the moment - he would have loved to have said goodbye but at least they were safe. But he needed to speak to Kate. Glancing around the room, he searched for his cell phone. _Dammit, where are you?_ Before he could drag himself up and search for it properly, he heard a noise next to him. Turning his head, he saw Richard Castle looking down at him.

"I..oh..you're alive?" Castle stuttered.

"Yeah." Roy groaned, "just about. Look..I, I really need to call..Kate." He forced out, trying his best to ignore the pain.

"You need an ambulance..and you need pressure on that wound." Castle said, kneeling down to sit beside him. "Here, let me." And he pressed his hands onto Montgomery's abdomen with as much pressure as he possibly could.

"No, it's no use." Montgomery spluttered. "Too late. Call..Kate.." He got out before his eyes closed again.

"No no no, stay with me. Stay with me Roy, Kate needs you, okay? Come on, stay with me.." Castle said, trying to bring Montgomery back round. Feeling his wrist, he felt only a very faint pulse. _This was not good_. Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming towards the house. Less than a minute later and Kate Beckett was standing in the doorway to Montgomery's living room, gun centered on the man who had Roy's blood on his hands.

"Kate..this isn't what it looks like, I promise.." Castle started, moving his hands away from Montgomery and holding them up like one of her murder suspects. _Ironic, really._

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare sit there and try to deny it. How could you? How could you do this?" Kate screamed, tears threatening to overspill from her watery eyes.

"Kate.." Montgomery groaned from the floor.

Kate's gaze shot to him, her gun lowering slightly. She ran over to his other side and sat next to him. "Oh god you're still alive? Okay, we need to get you to a hospital.."

"No, Kate, there's no time..I'm done." Roy gasped, fighting for every breath. "I need..to, to tell you something.."

Sensing this wasn't a moment he wanted to share, Castle respectfully rose from the floor and went to stand in the doorway. Kate had her guard down right now and this could be over soon. He wasn't so cold hearted as to take her out now. No, he'd wait until Montgomery was dead and then he'd strike. Hitting a girl while she's down was cowardly, but he knew after this she would be angry, so angry. And he'd seen her a little annoyed at that was bad enough - his jaw still hurt from that right hook earlier - but seeing her angry would be something else altogether, he could tell that already, and he wasn't above admitting she'd be able to beat him when she was completely committed to it.

"No, Roy there's still time, just give me a second to call an ambulance.." She cut off at the look in his eyes.

"No. This is my spot, Kate. This is where I stand. It's time, now. Please, tell Evelyn and the girls I love them but this..this mission you're on.."

"Oh god, no, don't worry about that now..I'll finish it, I promise. I'll make him pay for what he's done." She whispered, clenching his hand hard.

"No!" Montgomery said, a little too forcefully for someone in his state, and he winced in pain. "No..Kate..you can't..mission..over. You're..both..in danger. You..stop..don't..kill..Castle.." He took one last breath and then closed his eyes, for the last time.

"No, no! Come back, Roy..please! Oh god, please." Kate cried, her body slumping over Roy's dead body as she sobbed uncontrollably. Looking up a few minutes later, her eyes met Richard Castle's across the room. She needed to make him pay and she would, oh god she would. But she couldn't bring herself to do it right now, she needed to plan this out properly, get Roy the revenge he deserved. The revenge she had never got for her mother.

Castle couldn't do it. He was just about to draw his gun when Kate's body rose from it's position over Montgomery's body. And in that moment when their eyes met, he knew he couldn't bring himself to do it. That look of absolute desperation and sadness in her eyes hit him unexpectedly and instead of ending this once and for all, he slipped out of the house quietly, leaving her when she needed someone the most.

"Son of a bitch." Kate muttered as he slipped away. As much as she wanted to be with Roy, be with his wife and daughters when they found out, she knew she couldn't. She wouldn't be able to eat or sleep until she had justice for the man who had been like a father to her when her own was too busy drinking his life away. The man who had taught her to be the best damn homicide detective she could possibly be.

Standing up, she gave Roy one last look before walking away from him. "Goodbye, Captain." She said as she went, wiping the tears from her damp cheeks.

Once she was outside, she pulled out her cell phone, dialled 911 and left an anonymous tip with the police, saying she'd heard gunshots coming from Montgomery's house. She didn't want Evelyn or the girls coming home to find Roy's body, it was better the police took him and gave him the send off he deserved.

Walking around the corner, Kate jumped into her car that she'd parked there earlier. Starting up the engine and putting it into gear, she began the journey to Richard Castle's apartment.

* * *

Meanwhile, Castle was pacing up and down the length of his apartment. He knew this was about to come to a head and he had to be ready. He was pretty sure Kate would come here straight from Roy's house and that didn't give him long. He knew she'd be hurting and upset but he had a daughter. He couldn't just back down and let her take it, he couldn't let Alexis down like that. No, he had to give as good as he could get.

Downstairs, Kate Beckett parked her car, crossed the road and walked straight past the doorman, flashing her badge as she went. She rode the lift up to the right floor and walked across the hall to his apartment. Knocking on the door, she waited for him to answer.

Hearing the knock, Castle stopped his pacing and stared at the door. He expected her to come straight in or kick his door down or something - not knock. Slowly walking over to the door, he opened it and wasn't prepared for yet another right hook to his jaw. Stumbling back in to the apartment, he also wasn't prepared for the kick to his abdomen, punch to his nose or slap to his arm. She continued her assault shouting words of abuse as she did.

"You son of a bitch!" She screamed at him. "You bastard, you absolute bastard. How the fuck could do this to him..to me?" She was sobbing too, unable to control her emotions. "You went way too far Castle, way too far. Why aren't you fighting back? Fight back! Show me what you're made of!"

As she finally stopped her assault, he pinned her arms to her sides and stared into her eyes. "This isn't what you think, Kate. I promise you."

"Shut. Up." She yanked her arms free and pulled out her gun. "Now, you gonna fight back or just let me win this one?"

No, she was hurting but he wasn't feeling that generous. "In your dreams, sweetheart." He replied, pulling out his gun and pointing it at her, but she was too quick for him. Ducking behind the couch, she pulled the trigger and took a shot at him and it nicked his shoulder. Not enough for him to stop though.

He strode over to the couch and pulled her up by her arms. "No hiding today, honey." And he took a shot at her which she ducked by a millimetre. Rolling over to the staircase, she jumped up and ran up three stairs to get a better shot at him. Just as she spun around to face him again, she lost sight of him. Glancing around the room, she saw he'd run back into the kitchen. Chancing a shot, she fired at him from the stairs and he fired from the kitchen, both of them dodging bullets in only the way professionals could. Crouching down on the stairs to make it harder for him to hit her, she fired again and again without a clear view, so she wasn't surprised when none of her bullets made contact with her target. He was too good for her to be second rate, no, she had to be on her a-game for this one.

Castle was impressed. Only one of her bullets had made the slightest bit of contact and it wasn't too bad - just a graze. He could patch that up in an instant. And although only one of many had made contact, from the view she had and from the position she was in, she'd done well to get the rest as close as she had done. Gina wasn't kidding when she'd told him Beckett was dangerous.

Taking advantage of the fact she was half crouched on the stairs, he crept over to her and pulled her down towards him.

"Woah, what..what are you doing?" She gasped in shock.

"One of us has to end this Kate and preferably sometime soon, I'm fed up of this now."

"Yeah, well maybe you should have thought about that before you went to Montgomery's." She hissed. She swung her gun up to hit him but his reflexes beat hers and he grabbed her arm before the gun could make contact. She smirked at him then and kicked her left leg up, smiling in satisfaction when her foot made contact with the side of his head. He slumped to the ground and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Kate stood in shock for a moment. She couldn't believe she actually had the upper hand - by quite a way. He was unconscious and from the force she'd hit him with, he could be like that for some time yet.

Stepping back towards him, she shrieked in shock when his hand grabbed her ankle, pulling her onto the floor with him. She rolled on top of him and tried to pin him down with her thighs but he was to strong for her. He took control and rolled them back over so she was underneath him. Pinning her wrists above her head with one hand, he looked around for his gun.

Unluckily for Rick, Kate took advantage of him searching for his gun, and brought her knee up to hit him in the groin. His grunt of pain let her know she'd hit him where it hurt. Pushing him off of her, she scrambled to her feet and pointed her gun in his face - at the same time he located his gun and pointed it in her face.

Both of them panting with the effort of the fight, it took a minute for either of them to speak.

"Well. What're you gonna do Kate?" Castle asked, breaking the silence.

"I..I don't know. I could shoot you - just as you could shoot me, but we both know that if either if us pulls that trigger, the other will too. We're both too stubborn to admit defeat." Kate replied.

"You got that bit right." He muttered. "Look, about Montgomery, I-"

"I know." She cut him off. "I know it wasn't you who killed him."

Castle stared at her in shock from behind their guns, still pointed at each other's heads. "What do you mean, you know? What was the assault about earlier?!" He questioned.

"I..I was angry and you were there and I blamed you. But before he died, Roy said the mission was over, we're both in danger and not to kill you. He wouldn't have said that if you had shot him, I know that. But I can't throw all of this away..I can't just back down because I know if I do then you'll be able to take me and if you don't then neither of our lives would be worth living anyway."

Castle stopped and thought for a moment. He really, really didn't want to kill her but he didn't want to die either. Surely there was another way out of this? And if there wasn't, surely they could take what was coming for them? Taking a huge risk, he lowered his gun, leaving Kate with the final shot at point blank range - if she fired he was dead.

"No!" She shouted, terror evident in her eyes. "No, pick your gun back up and fight! I'm not winning this by default, that's not how I work!"

"It's over, Kate. I'm done. You want it? It's yours, take it. I deserve it. I know I didn't kill Montgomery but we both know it was the chief who had him killed for trying to defy orders. If I hadn't told Gina I saw your number plate back on that case then maybe they wouldn't have found out we were both there. So, it's because of me that Roy Montgomery was murdered and I know how much he meant to you." He said, her gun still aimed at his head. "So this ones yours, Kate. You earned it."

* * *

**_A/N: I knew all along where that was going..Castle was never going to kill Roy, I just wanted you to think he had ;) and another cliffhanger! Ooo, what will Kate do?! Anyway, let me know what you think! PS: sorry for the short chapter but I knew all along it had to end there!_**


	6. The Morning After

**_A/N: thank you for all of your reviews so far, hope you're still enjoying this!_**

* * *

Waking up the following morning, Kate had a huge smile on her face. She couldn't believe what she'd done last night and the best thing was that she had never felt better. She was practically bubbling over with excitement this morning, the grin refusing to leave her face.

Jumping up, she padded into the kitchen for a glass of water, grabbing a shirt from the floor and pulling it on. Deciding she wanted coffee too, she found everything she needed and got to work. Glancing over towards the living room, she saw the sight that made her happiest of all - Richard Castle's body slumped on the floor of the living room.

* * *

**The Night Before**.

_"It's over, Kate. I'm done. You want it? It's yours, take it. I deserve it. I know I didn't kill Montgomery but we both know it was the chief who had him killed for trying to defy orders. If I hadn't told Gina I saw your number plate back on that case then maybe they wouldn't have found out we were both there. So, it's because of me that Roy Montgomery was murdered and I know how much he meant to you." He said, her gun still aimed at his head. "So this ones yours, Kate. You earned it."_

Kate was torn. Completely and utterly torn. She had the opportunity now to end all of this and get it over with. She wouldn't have to spend her days tracking down Richard Castle and she could live the rest of her life in peace. But could she live the rest of her life knowing what she'd done to Alexis? She knew what it was like not having a parent and from what she knew about his family, killing Richard Castle would leave Alexis with just her grandmother around, her mother wasn't really in the picture much - much like her own father.

And then there was the fact that he made her feel like no one else ever had. They'd spent the past few days trying to kill each other and arguing non-stop but that moment when he'd kissed her she forgot all of that for a second. The feel of his lips against hers had been heaven and she was having a hard time getting it out of her mind. And then there was the moment when he'd pinned her against the wall in the precinct and slid his hand up her dress. _Shit that was hot._ She'd used it to her advantage as a distraction but she knew she was about ten seconds away from forgetting the mission and having him take her against the wall. She wanted him like she wanted no one else - but he was the one person she couldn't have. _Wasn't he_? She didn't have to kill him. He'd given in, couldn't she do the same? Because to be quite honest, all she wanted to do right now was pin him to the bed and not let him go for a good few hours.

Suddenly, Montgomery's words from the day he'd given her the assignment popped into her head. _"But remember this - no job is worth your happiness. The moment you find the one, tell me and you can be off this in an instant.."._ Well, she could no longer tell Montgomery but the sentiment still stood. As much as she hated to admit it, she felt something for this man in front of her and if they weren't in this situation, if they'd met under different circumstances, she'd like to think he would have wanted the same and they could have given this a shot. So that, coupled with the fact that he was the good guy here and she couldn't do it to Alexis, she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

He must have seen the hesitation in her eyes because not five seconds later, he pushed the arm holding her gun away from him and attached his lips to hers, pulling her closer by her waist. She dropped the gun and wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to get as close as possible. The kiss was hungry and powerful, both of their tongues fighting for control. She traced her tongue over his top lip before biting his bottom lip, causing him to groan. "Shit, Kate." He panted as they pulled away slightly.

She looked up at him, bottom lip caught between her teeth. "I couldn't do it..couldn't hurt you..your family like that." She whispered.

"I know, sweetheart. The whole assignment was wrong in the first place and you..god, you make me feel things I never thought possible.." He said.

She cut him off with another kiss. "I know what you mean." She said.

Claiming her lips once more, he took it one step further this time, sliding a hand up her t-shirt, feeling her shudder in anticipation but stopping when he reached the edge of her bra. "You sure you want to do this?" He checked, not wanting to push her too far.

"Never been so sure about anything in my life." She replied. And she took his hand, leading him to the sofa. They never made it to the bed.

* * *

**The Morning After.**

God, the memories of last night were causing her to blush. She bit her lip with a smile..oh the things he could do with _his_ lips were sinful. But then she remembered why she had come here in ether first place. Her captain, her role model, had been killed. Montgomery was gone and he wasn't coming back and he'd died trying to help her and Rick. She'd never be able to get over that. Working in this profession was never easy and it's one of the reasons she tried her hardest not to have personal relationships, but Roy was different. They'd gone into this with the possibility that she wouldn't make it out alive but it was him that had died, and he had a family - a wife and two daughters. She couldn't imagine what they must be feeling right now and as soon as they got this sorted, she'd go and see them. But now, she couldn't put them at risk by being seen with them. No, she had to finish this for good first.

Turning round and trying to focus, Kate poured two cups of coffee and added cream and sugar. Picking them up, she walked back over to the lounge and nudged Castle awake with her foot. "Wakey Wakey, sleepy head." She said.

Rousing from his sleep, Castle blinked a few times at the sight in front of him. He had climbed up from the floor and onto the couch and Kate Beckett was stood in front of him wearing nothing but his shirt and holding out a cup of coffee towards him. _God she was perfect._ "Morning. Mmm, thanks for the coffee." He took a sip. "How did you know how I took my coffee?" He asked, looking at her in surprise.

"Lucky guess." She shrugged, sinking onto the sofa next to him. "So..last night, huh.."

"Mm, last night." He looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "It..um, not just a..you aren't.."

She giggled. She actually _giggled_. Kate didn't giggle. "You seem to be having some trouble with the words there, writer-boy." She smirked.

"Hey, what did I say? Surely it's got to be writer-_man_ by now? After last night anyway.." He trailed off, memories of the previous night filling his mind.

She looked down, a slight blush forming on her cheeks. "Yeah." She said. "Definitely writer-man now."

He smiled at her. "Well what I was actually trying to get out was that..um, I was just trying to figure out if this was a one time thing..or..or if.." He stopped again. He was having trouble stringing a coherent sentence together this morning. She had that effect on him.

Kate moved closer, looking at him intensely. "Um, well it wasn't necessarily..but um, if that's what you want then-"

"Oh god no, that's not what I want!" He interrupted. "No, last night was incredible and uh, yeah..not just a one time thing."

"Good." She replied with a smile, closing the gap between them and kissing him softly. "Wanna go for round two?" She asked.

"Well technically it would be round four..and as much as I'd love to, I'm starving. Wanna make breakfast first?"

"Sure." She said, following him into the kitchen. They looked the picture of perfect domesticity, pulling pancake ingredients down from the cupboard and out of the fridge, her in his shirt and him in nothing but his boxers.

"So, what do you want on your pancakes?" Castle asked.

Kate eyed him with suspicion.

"What? What did I do?!"

"What do I want on my pancakes? Who has anything _other_ than maple syrup on their pancakes?" She said in mock seriousness.

"Ah, a girl after my own heart." He chuckled, realising as he said it that she was close to already having his heart.

"Want some fruit, too?" She suggested,

"Sure, you wanna grab it and chop it up? Just stick it all in a bowl and we'll put it in the middle."

Kate moved to the fridge, where she pulled out grapes and strawberries and then picked up some apples and bananas from the kitchen side. Laying them all out, she peeled and chopped as he poured batter into the pan. She couldn't believe how comfortably they were moving around his kitchen, it was like she'd lived there for months and it wasn't just yesterday they had a shoot out in this very apartment.

She stopped, thinking about how perfect this seemed. Castle turned around to watch her, "hey, earth to Kate. What's wrong?"

That brought her back to reality. "Oh, nothing, just thinking it's strange how less than 24 hours ago we were trying to kill each other and now we're in your kitchen after a night of ..of-"

"Hot, wild, mind-blowing passion?" He supplied helpfully.

She blushed. "Yeah that. Isn't it just odd how things have turned out?" She asked.

"I guess. Wait..you're not..you don't regret it right?" Castle asked, slightly worried.

"Oh no, no of course not!" She confirmed. "I just would never have thought this would happen. I'm ecstatic that it did, of course. I knew I had to either kill you or sleep with you.."

"Well I'm glad you went for the latter." He said.

"Yeah, me too." She laughed. She never would have been able to kill him, no matter how hard she tried and she suspected he felt the same. It just wasn't right. They were both fighting for the same team and the shouldn't have to give in to a guy who had more power than was safe.

"I never could have done it, you know." She heard him say from across the kitchen. "It wasn't possible..I tried to put everything aside and just tell myself it was just another case but it was no good. It was you..you got to me that first conversation we had in the precinct and when you told me those photos were fake I knew then that you'd be so much fun." He smiled at her. "You got to me that first day and I knew that nothing I did would ever get you off my mind. And after last night? Well now I'm never letting you go." He walked across the kitchen and planted a light kiss to her lips. "You're stuck with me now."

"Oh, god help me." She teased, earning herself a light slap to her backside.

Her eyes flashed with desire. "Not yet. Breakfast first. But after, I promise." He said. "Now come on, pancakes are done. Bring the fruit over the to the lounge and we'll eat on the couch." He picked up the plates of pancakes and some cutlery and she followed him over with the fruit.

Switching on the tv, they dug into their breakfast, last nights activites giving them both a healthy appetite this morning.

All of a sudden, they both froze with what they heard from the newsreader. Looking over at the screen in unison, they both gasped. Both of their faces were splashed across the screen, accompanied with the caption "wanted: for the murder of Captain Roy Montgomery."

* * *

**_A/N: so..what did you think? Someone _****_suggested I bump this up to M and write the 'intimate' scenes in a little more detail shall we say, and I've decided to keep it T, but I'm happy to write an M rated version of this chapter if people want me too? Let me know if you do and I'll write one and post it separately! Also, _**I'm feeling a bit 'ugh, everything I write is crap' at the moment so reviews are more than welcome right now! 


	7. Wanted

_**A/N: thank you so much for all your lovely reviews, you're the best! And as requested, an M rated version of chapter 6 is now up, posted as 'Trained to Kill: a night to remember.'**_

* * *

Both of the them stared at the tv for a few minutes, their breakfast forgotten. They were both in shock - how could they be wanted for Montgomery's murder? As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Kate Beckett and Richard Castle didn't even know each other, so why would they conspire together to kill Kate's captain?

Searching through his pockets in the trousers he was wearing yesterday, Castle pulled out his phone. Giving the necessary information to the automated operator, he waited for Gina to pick up.

"Gina. Have you seen the news?!" Castle practically shouted down the phone.

"Ah. Morning, Richard. You've seen it then..yes, a little unfortunate that you got caught..but um-"

"Got caught? Gina, I didn't do it! And neither did Kate." Castle interrupted.

"Kate? Oh so you're on a first name basis now are you?" Gina asked.

_Crap_. "Uh, yeah.."

"Hmm, and since when, may I ask, are you on first name terms with the woman you're supposed to be killing."

_Since she made me call it out so many times last night with those things she can do with her mouth and oh god.._ "Ah, about that. Yeah, we're not doing that anymore." He said, waiting for her reaction. When it came, he winced slightly and pulled the phone away from his ear so she didn't perforate his eardrum.

"What do you mean you're not doing it anymore? You know the consequences, Richard. You know what happens if you don't do this! And what do you mean 'we're' are you and Beckett some sort of a team right now?"

Yeah, something like that. "Look, Gina. We both know the consequences of this and we're prepared for them. And as for Kate and I..well, I'm not too sure what we are but I'm not losing her over this." He said, avoiding Kate's gaze.

Kate blushed and looked down, a small smile tugging at her lips. Despite their current situation, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world right now. Let's just hope they both made it out to do this properly.

"Well, I'll see what I can find out and if there's anything I can do, just don't leave your apartment. I assume Beckett is there with you?" She took his silence for a yes. "Should have guessed I suppose, like you'd be able to think with the right head when it came to her."

Castles eyes widened at her last comment and he hurried to cut the call off before she said anymore. Looking up, he could tell that Kate had heard Gina's comment too.

"I..um, ah.."

"What did she mean?" Kate asked with a slight smile.

Castle would have tried to make up a story but it wasn't really worth it. "Umm..well that day we ended up at the same place to kill Johnson? Well when I got back to Gina's office, she told me your name after she ran your plates and I asked if I should know you..I uh, didn't think I did because surely I'd remember someone with an ass like yours who rode a Harley. The motorbike? So totally hot, by the way." He stopped, trying to gage her reaction, which unfortunate wasn't giving much away. "And then, um she told me about a case you'd done that we were both really impressed with and I said you didn't look capable of that from what I'd seen, which wasn't much apart from your ass and uh yeah, Gina said that I was thinking with the wrong body part." He finished sheepishly.

Launching forward, Kate pressed her lips to his, surprising him slightly. "Sorry." She whispered as she pulled back. "It's just that's kinda..cute in a weird sort of way. I mean yeah you didn't know me from Eve and your perceptions were based on my behind but I'm glad I caught your attention so early on.."

"Oh, you got my attention alright..now..about the Harley?"

Kaye rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, Castle. When we're out of this mess I will take you for a ride on the Harley. Might even wear those shorts you saw me in.."

"I'll hold you to that, Detective." He said, just as his phone beeped. It was a text from Gina "_trying to sort this mess out, don't leave - either of you. It's probably not as bad as it looks, will let you know when I know more."_ It read.

"See, it'll be fine." Castle said, leaning in to kiss her again.

She deepened the kiss this time, always wanting to take the lead. He didn't mind really, it was pretty hot._ Ooo, perhaps he could get her to handcuff him to the bed and punish him_..these thoughts got sent south wards, something that didn't go unnoticed by Kate.

She'd climbed onto his lap now and was straddling him, with her tongue doing something completely incredible inside his mouth. Suddenly, the pulled away, feeling him underneath her. "Something you want to share with the class, Castle?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Ah, another time maybe." He said.

Pulling her head down towards his, he captured her lips again. Instead of their tongues battling for dominance, he ran his tongue over the roof of her mouth, making her shiver. "Oh you like that do you?" He asked huskily. "Hmm, well let's see how you like this." He brushed his right hand up the shirt - his shirt - she was wearing and drew small circles over her bare skin underneath, moving his hand upwards. Biting her bottom lip at the same time as he brushed his fingers over the underside of her breast caused her to let out a deep sigh and push her hips towards his, searching for friction.

He was about to oblige and give her what she wanted when his phone rang. Looking at the screen, he groaned. Couldn't ignore this one. Swiping the screen to answer, he shot an apologetic look in Kate's direction.

Kate remained on Castle's lap whilst he had his conversation, too comfortable to move. She wasn't sure who he was talking too, but she wasn't really bothered. Right now, she'd quite like to get this man back into bed. Well, into bed for the first time since they'd only made it as far as the couch last night, but close enough. Pressing her lips to his neck, she heard a slight hitch in his breath as he tried to speak. Applying more pressure and adding her teeth had him gripping her thigh with his free hand. Kate sucked on his neck, grinding her hips into his as she did. This was getting too much for Castle. Just as she bit down hard on his neck, he bucked his hips up towards her, his arousal evident.

Just as Kate was about to relieve him of some of that tension, his words stopped her in her tracks. "Uh, yeah I'm in. Okay, see you soon." He said as he cut off the phone call.

"Looks like we're about to have company - that was Alexis. She's on her way home." Castle informed Kate.

"Oh, uh..I should um, go.." Kate said, not really making any effort to move.

"Kate, you're not going anywhere - you heard what Gina said, neither of us can leave, it's too dangerous. Besides, I want you here."

"You do?" She asked.

"Of course I do, silly! I sure Alexis will wonder why you're here and she's not stupid, she'll probably figure it out but we won't say anything if you don't want to.."

"Castle, you're not lying to your daughter because of me. If she asks why I'm here - we'll tell her. In a bit less detail, obviously.."

"Definitely." Castle laughed, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "And anyway, after what you started when I was on the phone, I need a shower. Want to join me?" He asked.

"Sure, saving water and all that.." Kate replied as he picked her up and carried her towards the bathroom.

* * *

**_A/N: so it's a super short one and I'm really sorry but I wanted to write the M rated chapter too and my hours at work have been crazy..so I have no time to do much exfelt eat dinner and sleep! Bare with me, I promise the next chapter will be longer!_**


	8. Targets

**_A/N: thank you for all of your reviews on the last chapter and for the love on the m-rated version of chapter 6! As promised, it's a longer one this time :)_**

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Kate and Rick emerged from the bathroom fully dressed after their joint shower - which included some rather acrobatic sex against the tiled wall. Castle didn't even _know_ how she could get her legs into that position, but he wasn't complaining..and from the sounds that had escaped from her mouth during the shower, she wasn't complaining either.

They were cleaning up the dishes from breakfast when Alexis arrived, Kate washing and Castle drying. Luckily, they'd remembered to put their guns away, both hidden at the back of a kitchen drawer for now.

"Morning, Dad!" Alexis called out brightly as she walked in. "And, uh hi. Detective Beckett?" She said as she spotted Kate in the kitchen with her father, doing the dishes. _Wait_. Doing the dishes? Why was a police officer in her kitchen, with her dad, _doing the dishes?_

"Hey, pumpkin! How are you today?" Castle asked, perhaps a little too brightly. He could tell by the look on his daughters face that she was questioning what was going on right now.

"Great," Alexis replied distractedly. "Uh, why is Detective Beckett um, here?" She asked.

"Um, well you know I was helping Kate - Detective Beckett - on that case? Well uh, we..we uh.." Castle stuttered.

Luckily, Kate stepped in to save him. "You know, for a man who writes for a living you don't half have trouble finding words when you most need them." Kate said, referring to their earlier conversation about whiter last night had been a one time thing or not. "What your father is trying to say, Alexis, is that we - your father and I - are sort of together now." She explained.

"You are?" Alexis asked, a bewildered look flashing across her face.

_We are?_ thought Castle. He smiled to himself. _Yes, we are_. It felt good for her to put a label on it like that, he definitely wasn't letting her go. Remembering he still had to explain to his daughter, he came back to reality. "Yes. We are. I guess." Kate shot him a look. "Well we are. No guessing needed. We just..haven't figured out details yet..last night-"

Alexis cut him off. "Yeah okay dad, I get the picture. I don't need details about what the two of you got up to last night. I'm sixteen, I think I can figure it out for myself and that's bad enough." She said.

"Yes well I also don't want to know how you know these kinds of things. I know you're sixteen but I still like to think if you as my little girl." Castle replied.

Alexis rolled her eyes but it was Beckett that spoke. "Castle, seriously? From what I've seen, Alexis is a lot more grown up than you'd like to think..trust me, if you knew some if the things I got up to at sixteen you wouldn't let her out of the house." Kate told him with a smirk.

"Ooo tell me tell me..I want to know what teenage Kate Beckett was like! Were you a rebel? Did you skip your senior prom because it wasn't cool enough for you? I bet you had all the boys after you, didn't you?" Castle asked in excitement.

Both Kate and Alexis laughed at his childlike behaviour. "Yes, I was a bit of a rebel and yeah, you're right, I did skip my senior prom - we went to a poetry slam instead, seemed so much cooler back then.."

"And the boys?" Castle pressed, eager for more.

"Men. You're all the same. You want to know but at the same time you don't wanna know." She laughed. "Anyway, I've gotta call into the precinct..there's um, a case Esposito and Ryan wanted some help with."

"Sure, you can call them from my office." Castle replied with a smile. He knew half the reason she was doing this was so he could have a conversation with Aleixs. She'd been pretty quiet since she got here and he wasn't sure how she felt about Kate being here either.

* * *

Walking into Castle's office, Kate closed the door behind her. She could tell Alexis wasn't too sure about her being here so she wanted to give the girl a chance to talk to her dad in private. And she really did need to call Espo and Ryan, they would have found Montgomery by now and chances were that those two would be heading up the investigation in her absence. Sinking into Castle's rather comfortable spinny desk chair, she couldn't help but wonder if they could have sex in here. This chair would be perfect..

Pushing those thoughts from her mind, Kate pulled out her phone and brought up the number for Esposito's work phone.

"Esposito." He answered.

"Espo, it's me." Kate said.

"Oh, you're alive then." He replied flatly.

_Crap, what did he know?_ "Er, yeah. Sorry if that's a disappointment to you?"

"Well we haven't heard from you in about two days and all Mont-" he broke off, unable to say Montgomery's name. Kate figured he knew, then. "All we were told is that you had a family emergency."

"Yeah, well I did. I've been really busy-" Kate replied defensively. She wasn't going to let him bully her into feeling guilty for not being there.

"Well I've got news for you - Montgomery's dead. Perhaps if you'd actually been here then you might have known that. How big can this 'family emergency' be? Because the last we heard, you hadn't spoken to your dad in five years after he picked up a bottle again and you don't have any other family around." He all but shouted into the phone. He was angry.

That hurt. Tears sprung to her eyes, threatening to spill over any second. Esposito knew she didn't have a good relationship with her father and knew her mother was dead but he brought it up anyway. He knew how close she was to Montgomery, that she was like a father to her, and that him and Ryan were like brothers but he still threw it into her face right now.

"I know, Esposito. Okay? I know. I know Montgomery is dead and I know who killed him." She said before she could stop herself.

"What do you mean you know who killed him?" Ryan cut in. Espo must have told him she had called and he was listening in from another line.

"I..look, I can't say-"

"Why?" They both asked at once.

"It's..need to know." Beckett sighed. "I was doing something for Montgomery and it didn't go according to plan." She didn't need to tell them she had been 'doing things for Montgomery' for years now, she wouldn't tell them about her secret identity if she could help it.

"Oh well we sort of figured out something hadn't gone according to plan when Montgomery turned up dead. Didn't think he planned that, somehow." Espo said sarcastically.

"Need to know?" Ryan questioned. "He was our captain too, you know." he said quietly. "And given that we're the ones heading up the investigation into his murder, I think we have the proverbial need to know!"

Kate rolled her eyes, she knew they'd be angry but she didn't think it would be like this. "I'm sorry, okay? I really am. But I can't tell you, not yet, anyway." She said, hoping she wouldn't ever have to tell them. "I just need you to trust me, just for a few more days and I promise I'll do what I can to sort this out." She knew if she were to tell them, they'd keep it a secret. She trusted them with a lot, which was saying something given that she didn't trust easily at all. Didn't mean she wanted to tell them though. "Look, I have to go..let me know if you hear anything, okay?"

"Whatever, Beckett. Do what you like." Espo said, cutting off the phone call.

Kate threw her phone onto the desk in front of her and sunk her head into her hands, the tears flowing freely down her face. She hated the people who had forced her and Rick into this, even more now that they'd killed Roy, too. And Espo and Ryan's reactions weren't helping either. She needed her friends right now and they were two of the closest friends she had. She wasn't the easiest person to get to know or get on with and she didn't have a huge amount of people she could turn to - she was good at pushing people away - but they were both great guys and she had fun working with them over at the precinct. However, she knew she had a lot of work to do to get justice for Montgomery, and sitting here crying wasn't doing anything. Wiping her face, she got up and headed back into the lounge to see Castle and Alexis.

* * *

When the door to his office shut, cutting Kate off from the two of them, Alexis turned to her father. "So?" She asked. "Are you going to tell me what she's doing here?"

Castle moved to the lounge, taking a seat on the sofa and Alexis followed suit. "Look, Alexis, it's complicated, okay?" He told her.

"How complicated can it be? A week ago you didn't even know this woman and know you're together?" She asked.

"Yeah, well a lot can happen in a week." He sighed. "Pumpkin I know this is kind of sudden but Kate..she's, god she's amazing." He said with a smile. "I've never met anyone like her. She's so incredible at her job and her attitude is so damn addictive..I can't get enough of her." Alexis pulled a face. "Not like that..well, yeah like that but that isn't what I was talking about. She's sassy and unpredictable and irritating but they all make her this incredible person. She doesn't let people in and has this guard around her that she only let's down every now and then but I'm hooked on her. She's one in a million." He finished, a grin spreading across his face.

"You've got all this in less than a week?" Alexis asked skeptically. Seemed a little quick to know so much.

"Yeah, I guess I have." He mused. "Sweetheart, I know what you're thinking. That I can't possibly know all that about her from so little and that I'm making a mistake, but when you get to a point in your life like I have, you look at things differently. I've had two failed marriages and when I look back now I regret both of them - the only good thing to come out of it was you. You know how much I love you pumpkin, and I wouldn't change anything in my past if it meant keeping you the way you are but looking back I wonder why I married twice when I didn't love them. Meeting Kate..it's made me realise that I've screwed it up twice and I've finally got another chance to make it perfect."

"You really think she could be the one?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm not saying we're getting married tomorrow or anything, we're just going to see how this goes but she makes me feel things I've never felt before and it just reiterates the mistakes I made in the past. But every mistake, every wrong turn led me right here - I have you and my mother and my books but now I have Kate, too. It must sound crazy, I know, but when you meet the one, you'll be the same. When you know, you know."

Alexis was silent for a moment. She'd listened to everything her father had said and she was starting to change her mind. He seemed genuinely convinced that this would work, she hasn't seen him like this before, all wide-eyed and full of life. Just one more thing - "does she make you happy?" She asked.

"Yeah, she does." Castle answered.

"Then that's good enough for me." Alexis replied, leaning in to hug her father.

Castle smiled and kissed the top of Alexis' head. He was the luckiest father in the world to have a daughter like her and despite her reservations about Kate earlier, he knew she just wanted him to be happy.

* * *

Walking out of the office, Kate saw Castle and Alexis on he sofa, the girl cuddled up to her father. She watched them sadly, wishing she still had that kind of relationship with her father. She used to be such a daddy's girl and she loved him so much but by choosing the drink, he'd hurt her in a way she found it hard to forgive. He still wrote to her once a month, each month he stayed sober. She'd had 17 consecutive letters now, just one short of a full year and a half without a drink. It was the longest he'd ever gone and she was waiting for that one more and then she was considering going to see him again. It wouldn't be easy, but he was her father. She owed him one last chance.

Looking up, Alexis saw Kate stood in the doorway to her fathers office. Smiling at her warmly, Alexis motioned for Kate to join them on the couch. Kate looked to Castle, who also smiled at her. _Huh, figure he must have convinced Alexis to let them give it a shot then. _It sounded silly, really, needing the approval of a sixteen year old so that they could date but Kate could tell how much he cared about Alexis and knew he'd need to know she was okay with it too.

"So, did you get hold of the precinct?" Alexis asked as Kate sat down.

"Yeah, I did. They're um, yeah everything's fine." She smiled brightly, trying not to give herself away.

Castle could tell though. He sent her a questioning look from behind Alexis' back but she gave a small shake of her head. He'd have to get her alone later and figure out what was wrong, he didn't like the thought of her being upset and not having anyone to confide in. God he was turning into such a sap. He smiled at himself. Love did funny things to a person. _Wait, did he just use the 'l' word?!_

Castle was snapped out of his haze by Alexis questioning Beckett about her job. Hmm, perhaps Alexis wanted to join the police after school.. "So, why did you choose to work in himicide?" The girl asked. She wanted to know more about the woman his dad was so smitten with and to be honest, she was finding it hard to see anything to dislike about her.

Castle saw Beckett visibly stiffen at Alexis' question. A similar reaction to when he'd teasingly called her 'Katie' at the precinct. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to.." He told her. "Alexis is a bit nosy sometimes, gets it from me you see." He laughed, trying to make her feel more comfortable.

"No, it's fine," Kate said. She'd have to tell them eventually anyway if this thing between her and Castle was going to go anywhere. "When I was nineteen, my mother was murdered." She took a deep breath before continuing. "She was left in an alleyway to die alone on her way to meet with us for dinner. Her killer was never caught and to this day we still don't know who did it and _that_ is why I work homicide. Knowing that I can spare families just an inch of what I went through - still go through - makes me a little happier. Knowing that every solved case is another dangerous predator off of the streets enables me to sleep a little easier at night."

Alexis and Castle were both looking at her. "I'm sure she's very proud of you, wherever she is." Alexis said finally, breaking the silence.

Beckett gave her a sad smile. "Thank you, Alexis, that means a lot."

Castle didn't say anything in front of his daughter, but he knew that was why Kate worked as an assassin, too. It gave her the chance to really get justice for those who had suffered and it was probably something that contributed to the fact that she was amazing at it.

"And uh, thank you again, Alexis, for giving your father and I the go ahead to give this - us - a shot. That means a lot too."

"It was a no brainer, really. I haven't seen dad this happy in a long time." She said, smiling at them both. "Anyway, I have revision to do for my chemistry exam on Thursday, so I'll be up in my room if you need me."

"I really don't know where she gets her brains from." Castle said as Alexis retreated upstairs.

"Oh come on, Castle, you don't give yourself enough credit. I've read your books, you're not stupid, far from it in fact."

"I guess. Wait, what books of mine have you read?"

_Crap_. "Um, all of them?" She posed it as a question, hoping that would make it a little less awakard.

"Oh, have you now?" Castle asked, seemingly very pleased with this new discovery. "Conveniently failed to mention it I see."

"When would you have liked me to tell you, Castle? When you had me pinned up against the wall in the precinct? Or when I saw you at Montgomery's house? Oo, I know, how about when I had my mouth around your-"

He cut her off with a quick kiss. "Yes yes okay, you've made your point." He laughed. "I guess we have been a little busy the past few days. Good news is, I have a whole new book planned out." He'd sent the final draft of his last Derrick Storm novel to Gina two days ago. He assumed she hadn't read it all yet, given that she hadn't called him to ask why he was killing off his main character.

"New book? But you haven't released the next Derrick Storm novel yet?" Kate said to a smile from Castle.

"Ah, yes. Well I won't spoil it for you given that you'll want to read it yourself," he grinned at her earning himself an eye roll, "but let's just say I'm moving on. Yes, my new main character is going to be a tough but savvy female cop."

"Wait - what?" Beckett asked. Did he really just say that?

"Oh? Did I forget to mention I was basing a book on you? Sorry, I've bee a little busy." He told her with a cocky smirk.

"Castle, I swear to god-"

She was interrupted with Alexis bounding down the stairs suggesting the three of them go out for lunch this afternoon. Kate and Rick exchanged glances, neither of them was supposed to leave the apartment but Alexis couldn't know that.

"I, uh..well.." Castle stuttered. "We, um..no.."

"Dad?" Alexis asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just-" Castle was cut off by loud banging on the front door. As his daughter moved to open it, Castle warned her off. "No!" He shouted. "Leave it!" Alexis turned to him, confused. Kate had already jumped up and grabbed both of their hidden guns, handing Castle's to him on her way back. "Alexis, upstairs. Now."

"No, dad, I want to know what's going-" before she could finish her sentence, the front door was kicked in and Alexis raced across the floor and into the kitchen where she could hide behind the counter.

Four smartly dressed men were charging into Castle's apartment, guns in hands and looking for Beckett and Castle. At the same time, six guns started firing - Kate and Rick outnumbered, but only by two. They could still do this. Luckily, one of Castle's shots hit it's target, the man in front falling to the floor with a thud. This seemed to anger the remaining three and they pushed forward, gunning for Castle first, who had jumped just ahead of Beckett, seemingly under some sort of attempt to protect her and Alexis.

"Just come with us willingly and no one needs to get hurt." One of the men said.

"Not fucking likely." Beckett replied. The men looked around Castle to look at Kate. Castle took full advantage of this and rammed his body into the closest man to him. They both fell to the floor in a heap and a Beckett raised her gun to shoot the next man, the bullet hitting him squarely in the heart. He too fell to the floor. _Two down, two to go._

Meanwhile, Castle was wrestling on the floor with the man he had attacked and Beckett looked around to see if she could help. The attacker seemed to have the upper hand, his hand wrapped tightly around Castle's neck, slowly cutting off his air supply. _Crap_. Kate needed to do something. Sensing her impending assault, the attacker raised his arm and knocked Castle out cold with the barrel of his gun, hoping to be able to fight Beckett off before finishing the writer off for good. Standing up, he spun around and came face to face with a gun. Before he could react, Beckett had pulled the trigger and hit him right between the eyes. Her gaze momentarily flicking to Castle who was still unconscious on the floor, Kate hoped he'd be okay for another few minutes, she still had one more to take down.

Casting her eyes around the room, she panicked when she saw he'd disappeared. _Oh shit, Alexis_. Racing over to the kitchen, she saw she was a second too late. The remaining attacker had sensed they were outsmarted and had pulled Alexis up in front of him, a gun pressed to her head.

"You really don't want to do that." Kate warned, her own gun aimed roughly at the man gripping onto Alexis. Kate was impressed though because although she could see the look of terror in the young girls eyes, she could tell she had some of her fathers fighting spirit. She wasn't going to make this easy for him. Suddenly, Alexis acted. Moving her foot back, she stamped hard on her attackers foot and then pulled it up to kick him in the groin. The pain had him release Alexis, letting Kate get a clear shot and saving them all - for now, anyway.

"Oh god, Alexis, are you okay?" Kate asked, walking over to pull the girl into a tight hug.

Alexis hugged her back just as tightly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Dad?"

Both of them rushed back into the lounge to check on Castle. Feeling his wrist with two of her fingers, Kate felt a strong pulse. That was good, he should be okay in a few minutes.

Alexis began to shake him, trying to rouse him from his unconscious state. Castle stirred, slowly opening his eyes and trying to sit up. "No no, stay down there dad, you've been knocked out."

"'m fine." He mumbled, forcing himself up, closing his eyes again as a wave of dizziness hit.

"Okay, let's get you on the sofa." Kate suggested. Taking an arm each, her and Alexis pulled him up and settled him on the couch.

Looking around, he remembered what had happened before he got knocked out. "All gone?" He asked.

"Yeah, you took one out and then tackled a second, I got rid of a third and then shot the one who knocked you out. Went to get rid of the fourth and he had Alexis - seems she has some of her fathers fighting spirit though and got free so I could shoot him too."

Castle groaned. "Oh god, Alexis. I'm sorry, pumpkin. So so sorry."

"I'm fine. But I want answers."

Kate and Castle looked at each other warily. This was not a conversation either of them wanted to have.

Alexis spoke again. "I want to know who these men are and why they just broke into our home and tried to kill you both. What's going on?"

"Well." Castle said, looking at Kate. "Do you want to tell her or should I?"

* * *

**_A/N: so, thoughts? 4246 words this time - does that make up for the previous one only being 1500?! (It took me three hours to write it so I hope so!)_**


	9. Explanations

**_A/N: thank you for all your reviews, here's your reward - another update :)_**

* * *

_"Well." Castle said, looking at Kate. "Do you want to tell her or should I?"_

* * *

Beckett looked from Rick to Alexis and back again a few times. She felt as if she was watching a tennis match. "Alexis, I understand you want answers but will you do one thing for me?" She asked.

"Why would I do anything for you?" Alexis sneered.

"Alexis Harper Castle you do not speak to guests in this house like that!" Castle reprimanded, upset and angry at his daughters tone of voice. He knew she was confused and wanted answers, and she deserved them, but that didn't give her the right to speak to Kate like that, especially as Kate had pretty much just single handedly saved all of their lives.

"It's fine, Rick, she's angry." Beckett soothed, she wasn't expecting a welcome party from Alexis.

Alexis sighed. Her father was right, she might be angry at what they'd done and what had just happened but she had been brought up better than that. "No, Detective, it isn't fine. My father is right, I shouldn't have spoken to you like that and I apologise."

"Apology accepted." Kate replied quickly. Jesus, did Castle have the perfect kid or what? As much as he would say she was her own spirit and nothing like either of her parents, Kate knew Alexis had been brought up well, she could tell Castle was a brilliant father. "Now, I understand that you're angry and you want to speak with your father but can you please give me two minutes alone with him? And then he's all yours, I swear." Kate said.

Alexis hesitated. She desperately wanted answers but she felt by letting Detective Beckett speak with her dad first, he would be more likely to answer her questions. "Okay, fine. I'll be in my room and I'll be down in five minutes." She said, getting up and walking over to the stairs, trying as hard as she could to ignore the bodies scattered on the floor. _How would they explain those to Gram?_

"You're a brilliant father, Rick."

"Uh, thank you. But I'm guessing you didn't ask Alexis to give us a minute to tell me that?"

"No. I wanted to know how much you're planning on telling her?" Beckett asked. "I mean, I know it isn't really any of my business and you have every right to tell _your_ daughter exactly what _you_ want but I was kinda hoping for a heads up." She said, giving him a wide-eyed look.

God that look did things to him - _she_ did things to him, things he couldn't even begin to explain. "Sweetheart you keep looking at me like that and I'll tell you the PIN number to my credit card."

Kate bit her bottom lip.

"No, you're right, you have as much of a say in this as I do. I'm sure we've both been told the same thing - this has to stay a secret, even family can't know." Kate nodded. "But I don't see what choice we have now except to tell Alexis. But I'm happy to leave you out of it, say you're just a cop if you want?"

"No, I don't want you to lie to her because of me. Just..just can you not mention Montgomery if possible? I haven't had a chance to see his wife and daughters yet and Espo and Ryan aren't helping.."

"Is that what was wrong earlier?" He asked.

She nodded again. "Yeah, they got funny with me for still being MIA. I mean I know they're upset over Montgomery too but they need to let me do this. I'm even debating whether it would be worth telling them the whole story, just so they stop hating me." She said, tears springing to her eyes again. Espo and Ryan meant way more to her than she'd ever admit, she hated them not talking to her.

"Well, whatever you decide, I'll be there every step of the way." Castle said, pulling her into a tight embrace.

"Thank you." She whispered and he kissed the top of her head. "Erm, do you want me to give you and Alexis some privacy? I mean I'd leave, but Gina said I shouldn't so..

"No, I want you here too so you can stop me if I say too much. And I don't know how she's going to react so you being here might help."

Kate laughed. Somehow she couldn't see Alexis acting too badly. The kid was practically a saint. Just then, Alexis came back downstairs.

"Okay, you've had five minutes, now I want answers."

"And we're going to give them to you." Kate said. "But uh, if you want..I can go..leave you and your dad to talk.."

"Kate, I already told you I want you here."

"Yes I know you did, Castle, but considering this is Alexis' house too and you're her father, I was checking to make sure Alexis was happy with me being here." Kate knew what it was like having a close relationship with your father, the last thing she wanted was to come between Rick and Alexis.

Alexis watched them with interest. It wasn't very often she met a woman who could keep her father on her toes like Detective Beckett did. "No, it's fine. I'd like you here too." She said.

Kate smiled at her. "Okay, so where would you like to start? I mean we could explain the bodies on the floor but maybe we should start at the beginning?"

"Yeah, the beginning sounds good." Alexis said.

"Great, well your father can start, I'll make some tea." Kate said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. "Oh god, I'm so sorry..this is your house and I'm making tea."

Alexis let out a small laugh. "It's fine, tea would be great, thank you, Dtective."

"Alexis, please, call me Kate."

Castle was happy the two of them were getting on. He was crazy about Kate and it meant a lot that his daughter liked her too. "Okay, pumpkin, I'll start while Kate makes tea." He took a deep breath, suddenly realising he didn't know _where_ to start. "Okay..well you know Gina is my publisher?" Alexis nodded. "Well she also runs an undercover organisation of trained assassins."

Alexis' eyes widened. "So..so you're telling me you..kill people?" She said in a small voice.

Castle knew this would be the hardest bit, getting Alexis to understand. However, right now, honesty was the best policy. "Yes." He said simply, taking a mug of raspberry tea from Kate.

Alexis took her tea too, with a quiet _thanks_ to Kate. "And..you do too?" She asked, her question directed at Kate.

"Yeah, I do." She replied. "Your dad and I work for separate organisations, but we both do the same thing. We eliminate those who deserve it - no one we intentionally kill is innocent. They're murderers, traitors and the worst people you could imagine."

"She's right. We don't go around killing whoever we like, it's a planned operation and it's only for the safety of everyone else. If these people weren't taken out, they'd continue to ruin the lives of others and possibly put the country as a whole at risk."

Alexis took all this in before asking her next question. "So..you're not a cop?" She asked Kate, and directed "or a writer?" Towards her father.

"Oh yeah, I'm still a cop. I was a cop first, before I got recruited by my-" she broke off, not wanting to bring Montgomery into it. "By someone at work. I do this undercover when I need to and I'm a cop the rest of the time."

"And I'm still a writer. Gina said my books insinuated I'd be good at killing people for real - I believe she meant it as a compliment - and so she recruited me undercover. But I'm still a writer sweetie, that's still what I love doing."

"So um, how did the two of you meet?"

"Ha, funny story actually." Kate smiled. "I was given a new assignment and your father was given the same one."

"Yeah, there was a mix up and we both turned up."

"So, there I was, two and a half hours early to set up and your father rocks up half an hour before the target was due to arrive and sits there on his laptop!"

"Hey, I was finishing that book for Gina!"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we both shot at the same time and that's when we realised we weren't alone." She stopped, not sure how she should continue to tell the story of how she was supposed to kill Alexis' father.

Castle seemed to sense her discomfort and continued the story himself. "So I told Gina I saw her and we both get a new assignment - to kill each other."

"Wait..if you're supposed to be trying to kill each other then why are we here, like this with you two all...loved up like teenagers?"

Rick looked at Kate. "You know, sometimes I forget that I'm the parent and she's the teenager."

"Yeah well, maybe you should start acting less like a teenager sometimes Castle." Kate said.

Alexis laughed. "Two against one, you're not winning this one dad."

Castle pouted. He wasn't sure he was going to like this, Kate and Alexis ganging up on him. "Hmm, well back to the story. After a few..less than serious attempts, shall we say, at taking each other out, we both realised we couldn't do it. It wasn't right, we're both on the same team after all."

Alexis nodded in agreement. "So why are there four dead bodies on the floor?"

"Ah, yeah. Well you see..when Kate and I called a truce, the person behind all this sent these guys after us..we aren't allowed to leave the apartment yet and it's not safe. Gina's working on it, but I'm not sure how much she can do."

"Well what about your boss?" Alexis asked Kate.

Kate looked at Castle. Seems she was bringing Montgomery into this after all. "Erm, he was killed..last night." She said quietly.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry.."

"It's fine. But uh, the person behind it is now after us and we need to find a way to get out of this.."

The girl was quiet for a few minutes and Castle send worrying looks in her direction. "Look," Alexis began, "this is a huge amount for me to take in and um, I'm still angry you only told me now because you had to but at the same time I can see it would have made it more difficult if I knew what you were up to. But..maybe I should go to Paige's for the day or something? Let you two figure this out..I need to let all this sink in and uh, you don't need to be worrying about me on top of all that." Alexis suggested.

"Sweetheart, I know this is a lot to take in but please don't be angry. I didn't tell you because I knew how much you'd worry and that would kill me. If you want, this can be it, I'll tell Gina I quit and I'll just be a writer and your dad, but I need to help Kate with this one first."

"That's fine, dad." Alexis said, getting up to give him hug. "I'll stay at Paige's for now and we can talk more when it's sunk in properly. I'll probably have a million and one questions once I've thought about it!"

"And I'll answer them all. But you can't tell Paige about this.."

"Yeah, I figured that much." Alexis laughed. "But thank you, both of you, for being honest with me. It's not what I expected but it's pretty cool, too."

Castle chuckled. That was his daughter alright.

"Okay, I'm gonna go upstairs and grab some stuff and call Paige." Alexis said, jumping up and kissing her father on the cheek. Turning back, she walked over and gave a surprised Kate a hug too. "Look after him." Alexis whispered in Kate's ear. The squeeze she got in return let her know that Beckett would do whatever she could to keep Castle safe.

"Well," Kate said as Alexis disappeared upstairs to her room, "it's official. You have _the_ best kid in the universe."

Castle laughed. He was pretty lucky. "I know, right. I still can't believe she took all that so calmly." He was waiting for the shouting and the crying, the accusations that he was putting himself before her by putting himself into dangerous situations, but it seemed he was safe from that for now.

"Now, we need to get these guys moved.." He said, motioning to the bodies on the floor.

* * *

Thirty minutes later and Gina had sent over other agents to remove the bodies from Castle's apartment. Now they just had to clean up the mess.

Alexis had just left, giving both her father and Kate another hug and saying she'd call him later.

Which left Kate and Castle alone in the apartment again. Moving closer to her, Castle grabbed her by the hips and planted his mouth on hers, kissing her deeply. "So, what shall we do now?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Kate laughed at him. He was adorable. "Well, as much as I'd love to take you to bed, we can't." He pouted. "Don't do that Castle, we still have no idea how to get out of this mess."

Rick sighed, she was right. "I know, I know. It's just now that I've had you I don't want to let you go."

"I'm not going anywhere, Castle." She replied, kissing him softly. "But we really need a plan."

"Well, Gina isn't being much help." Castle grumbled.

"I know..um..I think we need to go to the precinct.." She suggested.

"But we aren't supposed to leave, it's too dangerous.

"Castle, in case you had forgotten, four men just broke into your home and tried to kill us, I don't think it's safe here, either."

"Okay, point taken. But why the precinct?"

"I wanna know what Espo and Ryan have so far on Montgomery's murder. They might have something that can help us."

"Okay, if that's what you want, we'll go."

Ten minutes later and they were climbing into a cab outside Castle's apartment. Castle could tell Kate was nervous, she wouldn't stop jiggling her leg.

"Hey," he whispered, "it'll be fine, I promise."

She gave him half a smile in return. She wasn't much looking forward to seeing Espo and Ryan, especially when she couldn't tell them a lot.

They rode the elevator up to the right floor hand in hand, Kate gripping on for dear life. Stepping out, they walked over to Esposito and Ryan, who were both sat around Esposito's desk.

Jumping up when they spotted Castle and Beckett, it was Esposito who spoke first.

"What the hell are you doing here Beckett? You didn't care enough to come in when I told you about Montgomery so why are you here now?" He said, clearly angry with her.

"Espo-"

"Leave it, Beckett." Ryan said, equally as angry. "He's right, we don't need you here so you might as well go home with your new boyfriend."

Castle was flabbergasted, he could tell how much these two meant to Kate and he couldn't believe they were treating her like this. Looking to Kate, he tried to offer words of comfort, but she shook her head.

"You're right." She told them. "I don't deserve to be here. But we need help."

"And we're going to help you why, exactly?" Espo asked.

"Because otherwise Castle and I are both dead."

* * *

**_A/N: so this chapter didn't really go as planned but I think it's okay? Let me know what you think!_**


	10. Explanations - take two

_**A/N: thank you. That is all.**_

* * *

_"Because otherwise Castle and I are both dead."_

* * *

Kate could tell her words had had the desired effect. Esposito and Ryan might be angry at her, but they'd never want her dead.

"Okay. Fine. What do you need?" Esposito said.

Kate looked at him in shock, she hadn't expected him to fold that easily. "Really? You'll..you'll help us?" She asked.

"Yeah. Look, after what we said to you on the phone earlier, here was probably the last place you'd want to be, but given that you're here anyway, it must be important."

"It is." Kate said as Castle nodded.

"Then shoot. What do you need?"

Kate took a deep breath and sunk into the chair at her desk. Castle found a spare chair and dragged it over to sit next to her. "How far have you got on Montgomery's case?" She asked, tears springing to her eyes as she remembered how he'd died in her arms.

"Not very far." Ryan said. "It was too well planned out, no evidence left, no abnormal phone records..wait, I thought you said you know who killed him?"

Castle could tell Kate was struggling to keep it together so he spoke this time. "We do..just not the name of the person. We know roughly what they do and if I spoke to my boss I could probably find out who they work for but that's all we have."

"And you're here why, exactly?" Esposito asked, shooting Castle a glare that would have made lesser men quake in their boots.

"Cut it out, Espo." Kate said, "Castle is here because we're in this together and honestly, if it was for him I wouldn't have got through the last few days."

"And what exactly is it that you're in together?" Ryan questioned.

Kate smiled apologetically at him. "Right, you can't say."

"I'm sorry guys, I really am. But this was never meant to happen, this was meant to be over days ago."

"Well if you won't tell us how come you told writer-boy over here?" Ryan said. Kate looked at him. How did he know Castle was a writer? "What? Jenny loves his books." He said defensively. His relationship with Jenny was still fairly new and he got enough of a ribbing from Esposito about it.

"Well tell Jenny I said thank you very much." Castle said with his best page six smile. Kate rolled her eyes.

"Yes yes, we all love his books. Now, can we -" she broke off when she noticed Castle staring at her. "What? What did I say?"

"You uh, you said 'we all love his books.' Didn't know you were such a fan Beckett."

_Crap_. "I'm..um, I..ah.." She really hadn't meant to say that, the last thing she needed was to inflate the guys ego anymore.

Castle smirked at her discomfort. "Oh we'll talk about this later." _Brilliant. Kate couldn't wait._

"Anyway, the reason Castle knows is because it involves him too. We met accidentally and things sort of unfolded from there." Kate said, avoiding eye contact with Castle.

"Okay, so obviously you're not going to tell us anything and we don't really have any information to go on in the case so you might as well go now." Esposito said, heading into the break room, closely followed by Ryan.

Castle could see how upset Kate was, despite the fact she was trying desperately to hide it. "Hey," he whispered, pulling her into a tight hug, "they'll come around. They're just angry what with everything that happened to Montgomery and now you're not telling them what they want to know-" he broke off as she tried to speak, "I know you can't tell them but they don't know why and that's why they're angry, they'll get over it, I promise."

"I can tell them." She said. "I mean, I know I'm not supposed to but who's going to stop me now that Montgomery is dead? Even if he was here and this situation was reversed, he'd tell me I could tell Espo and Ryan what I wanted."

"Kate, look at me." She pulled away slightly to look at him, their faces inches apart. "If you want to tell them then fine. I'll be here with you when you do it, if you want."

"Seriously! You'd help me tell them even though it's breaking every single rule we promised not to break when we signed up?"

"Yes." He said simply and Kate kissed him. "What was that for?" He laughed.

"What, I'm not allowed to kiss my boyfri-" she broke off and her eyes widened.

Unfortunately for her, Castle had caught her little slip up. "Oh, so I'm your boyfriend now am I?" He asked, a slight teasing tone to his voice.

"I..um...no I just-"

"Kate, I'm joking. If you call me your boyfriend then I'm your boyfriend. Okay?"

"'Kay." She mumbled settling back into her previous position of being wrapped in his arms, it made her feel safe. She wasn't really sure if he _was_ her boyfriend, everything had happened ridiculously fast over the past few days, but although they hadn't known each other very long, this kind of situation meant it felt like forever. And if Richard Castle was her boyfriend? Well, she could think of worse things to happen. She'd go with it for now and they could talk about it properly when this was all over.

"So, do you wanna tell Esposito and Ryan?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess." She sighed. "I feel bad about not telling them what we know, they want this guy just as much as we do. And I know we can trust them, they won't tell anyone."

"I guess it's sorted then." Castle said, liking how much she'd used 'we' in that last sentence. She was one in a million and there was no way her go letting her go, even once this was all over. "Come on, we'll do it in the break room. Less chance of being overheard." He said, taking her hand and pulling her up with him.

"Yeah, and you want coffee." She grumbled.

"Oh you know me so well." He said.

That got Kate thinking. How did she know him so well already? She didn't know, but one thing she did know was that she, the woman famous for her commitment issues, wasn't even bothered by that fact. Hmm, maybe Roy knew something when he gave her this case. She thought, thinking back to the conversation she'd had with him about giving all this up when she found 'the one'._ If that even existed_. Ah, there was the Kate Beckett she knew.

Okay guys, we'll tell you what we know." Kate said as her and Castle entered the break room.

"Finally decided we can handle it have you?" Espo said.

"Drop the attitude, Javi, I'm not in the mood." Kate replied in her usual 'in charge Detective' voice. It worked.

"Sorry. Okay, well we're ready when you are." He said.

"I need coffee first." Castle reminded her and she laughed.

"Yes okay, we'll make coffee first." She stopped on her way to make it, sensing Esposito and Ryan staring at her. "Okay, what now?"

"Nothing it's just..did you just _laugh_?" Ryan asked.

Beckett looked at him. "Yeah. So?"

"So, the Kate Beckett we know is as serious as a heart attack. You don't _laugh_." Espo added.

"Oh. Right." Kate was at a loss for words. Now that they'd pointed it out, she realised they were right. J_esus, Castle was a good influence_.

Castle was confused. The Kate Beckett he knew had laughed quite a lot when they were together. But then Esposito and Ryan were saying this was out of the ordinary for her? _Strange_.

"Yeah, anyway, coffee." Beckett said, not wanting to dwell on their comments any longer. She was already worried about how fast things were moving with Castle and now even her colleagues were noticing the change in her.

Five minutes later and the four of them we're sat around the the table, steaming mugs of coffee in front of them. Kate sat next to Rick with Espo and Ryan opposite them.

"Okay, well where do you want us to start?" Beckett asked.

"How about how you know who killed Montgomery?" Esposito said and Ryan nodded his agreement.

Kate looked at Castle. "Right, well we can tell you that but we might have to start a little earlier..you won't understand otherwise."

"Okay fine, tell us what you want and then we'll ask any questions."

"Same story as Alexis?" Castle whispered in Kate's ear and she nodded. Well, it went okay with Alexis..

* * *

Twenty minute later and they'd explained what they could to Esposito and Ryan. Both of them had remained silent throughout the story and had refrained from interrupting with questions. _Not like them_, Kate thought to herself.

After Castle and Beckett had finished, the room was silent for a few minutes.

"So..you're telling us that Montgomery was running a secret organisation of undercover agents out of this precinct?" Ryan said, breaking the silence. Kate nodded. "And you're one of them?" She nodded again. "Wow."

"Right, well as much as that is a huge shock to us both, I think we can leave it for now and deal with it later. What we wanna know is how much you can tell us on Momtgomery."

Kate took a deep breath. "Right, well we _think_ Montgomery got into contact with the chief, trying to find another way out of this. He wasn't happy with it and neither were we, but we had explicit instructions on what was supposed to happen and what the consequences would be if we failed." Castle squeezed her hand in encouragement. "However the chief wasn't happy with this, and had Montgomery killed. We got there - separately - just before he died and he told me this case was over and I wasn't to kill Castle."_ Not that I could have done anyway, _she added silently. "However I was angry. I went over to see Castle and um..we er, fought." She said as a pink tinge rose on her cheeks. What was she supposed to say next? '_But we gave in and had mind blowing sex in his living room?'_ Awkward.

Ryan and Esposito took her sudden silence and the blush on her cheeks as information enough. "Ah, you can uh, skip the rest of that night if you like. We don't want details."

Kate's cheeks flamed with embarrassment. She wasn't going to even look at Castle. "Yeah, well skip to the next morning and the chief sends forces after us." God, was that only this morning? Had her and Castle only happened last night? How was that even possible?

Castle decided to continue the story from there. "Four men stormed into my apartment, ready to fight. I took one out and another knocked me out. Kate here saved us and took out the remaining three, keeping my daughter safe too." Beckett's cheeks flamed again.

Esposito and Ryan looked impressed. "So um, what are you doing here?" They asked.

"Well Castle's boss told us leaving his place wouldn't be safe but given what happened, staying wasn't safe either. It won't be long before the chief finds out we're still alive and sends people after us again. We came here because we wanted to see if you were any closer than us to finding out who's behind all this. If we find him, we might be able to stop him." She did add that they needed to stop him if either of them were going to survive for much longer.

* * *

So for the next two hours, the four of them worked as a team to piece together all the information they had. Castle had tried calling Gina to see what she knew about the chief, but she wasn't answering so they had to do without that for now.

"Well, we don't have much but it's better than nothing." Kate said, standing back to look at their murder board. They had all the outlines, they just needed to fill in the middle - names, places, organisations..

Just then, Castle's phone rang. Pulling it out to answer it, he mouthed 'Gina' to the rest of them.

"About time, why aren't you answering my calls?" He asked.

"Probably the same reason you're not at your apartment, where I asked you to stay."

"Gina, you had people remove the bodies - you didn't really think we were going to stay there when it quite clearly isn't safe, did you?"

"Oh I suppose not. Where are you, anyway?" She asked.

"Over at the twelfth precinct with Kate and her team, we've been going over the case, putting our information together to try and figure out who's behind this."

"Oh come on, Richard. You know how dangerous he is, you need to be care-" she broke off. "Was that clicking sound you?"

"No, I thought it was you?"

"Richard - hang up the phone. Ditch it first chance you get, go somewhere safe. Take Kate with you!" She shouted cutting off the call.

"What's wrong?" Beckett asked, seeing his panicked expression.

"I told Gina where we were and I think the call was being listened into." He said. "They know where we are, Kate, and they're going to come after us."

* * *

**_A/N: your thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)_**


	11. The Getaway

**_A/N: sorry for the slow update but I'm writing two other stories at the moment that I couldn't wait to start and then 6x17 aired and I absolutely had to write a post-ep for that but thank you for your reviews on chapter 10, hope you like this one!_**

* * *

_"I told Gina where we were and I think the call was being listened into." He said. "They know where we are, Kate, and they're going to come after us."_

* * *

Esposito and Ryan stared at Castle and Beckett in shock.

"Beckett, we need to get out of here. They're gonna be here any second and we need to get as far away as possible." Castle said, a note of panic in his voice.

"Yeah..we do..umm.." She replied, breaking off when she realised she didn't know what to suggest. This wasn't like her, Kate Beckett planned everything with military precision, she wasn't used to not knowing what to do.

"Castle, give me your phone." Esposito said, shocking them all.

"What? Why?" He questioned.

"Because you need to ditch it." He was right, Gina had told him to get rid of it. "Give it to me and I'll deal with it. I've got a contact in tech that can wipe everything from it and make it untraceable."

"Oh. Thank you." Castle said, slightly shocked at how helpful Esposito was being. After the story they'd just told the two detectives he was half expecting some sort of a fiasco. It wasn't everyday you found out someone you thought you knew was an assassin. However, he handed his phone to Esposito anyway.

"Right, we need to get out of here." Beckett said. "I'm sorry guys, but we don't have time to help more on the case. If you can trace anything back to whoever is behind this then call me. I don't think they've got a trace on my phone yet but don't give too much away if you speak."

"Sure, now get out of here!" Ryan said, ushering them towards the elevator.

"Thank you, guys, so much." Beckett said as the elevator doors closed, leaving her and Castle alone.

"Where do you think we should go?" Castle asked.

"Well..I've got an idea but I don't know if you're gonna like it.." She stepping out of the elevator, hand ready to pull her gun if she needed to. "Come on, we need to get a car and get out of here and then I'll explain."

Hailing a cab out on the street, they both stumbled in, checking they weren't being watched or followed. Rattling off her address to the cabbie, she added "there's an extra fifty in it for you if you can get us there in ten minutes."

"Why are we going to your place? Surely that's not safe?" Castle said in a hushed tone, trying not to arouse the cabbie's suspicion.

"We're not staying there. I've got a car we can use, for emergencies. I've never had to use it until now."

Eight minutes later and they pulled up at Beckett's apartment. Leaning forward to pay the driver, she said "I'll make it a hundred if you promise you'll say you never saw us if anyone asks?" She couldn't be sure that she'd have an alibi ready for her now, not with Montgomery gone.

"Sure." The cabbie shrugged and Beckett handed him the money.

"Come on, Castle, let's go."

* * *

Thirty minutes later and they were on the highway heading out of the city in Beckett's 'emergency car'. Turns out her emergency car was a Matte Black Porsche 911 - not very nondescript. But then again, this was New York - the people here were famous for not noticing the obvious, perhaps she was onto something here.

"So, where are we going?" He asked.

"The Hamptons." She replied. "I have a house there. Not in my real name though, so they shouldn't be able to trace us there. We should be okay for a couple of days until we hear back from Espo and Ryan and can figure out a plan. I've got food and clothes - for you, too - there so we don't need to stop until we get there."

Castle was impressed, she seemed to have a very thorough back up plan. He had to admit though, the fact that she had clothes that would fit him made him slightly jealous.

Looking over at him from the drivers seat, she could tell what was bothering him. "The clothes are all brand new, Castle," she said with a smirk, "they don't belong to an ex of mine or anything. In fact, you're the first person I've ever taken there."

That little piece of information made Castle happier than he'd care to admit. "Well, it seems you have it all planned out. But uh-"

"I have a burner cell there too, you can call Alexis when we arrive." She said, apparently reading his mind again.

"Thanks."

"No worries, Castle. I know this can't be easy." She said and in a way she was almost jealous. He had people who cared about him, people he had to let know if he was going to be away for a few days. Her? The only person she had was now dead and her life was on the line.

"Uh, no, it's not. But um, I guess I've always had to think this could happen, sort of an occupational hazard if I'm honest. I just never thought it would be like this. I thought I could just tell Alexis I had to go on an emergency book signing or something, but now that she knows the truth I know she's just going to worry."

"We're gonna be okay, Castle." She said. She'd make sure he at least made it out of this alive, she wasn't going to be responsible for Alexis not having a father for the rest of her life. She knew how bad that felt. "We're gonna figure this out and then you can go home to your daughter."

"And you're coming with me." He said quietly and she looked at him.

"Yeah well, I don't make promises I can't keep."

Castle knew what she really meant, he could read between the lines - she'd do what she could to get him back to Alexis, even if that meant sacrificing herself. He'd be damned if he let her go without a fight. "I know what you're trying to do but it isn't going to work. Every second I spend with you I fall for you more and more and there's no way on earth I'm leaving you to do this on your own. This is as much my mess as it is yours."

Beckett remained silent. She wasn't used to someone caring for her like this but she couldn't let herself care too much. The more she cared, the more it would hurt when this was all over - however it ended. Pulling up to her secluded house in the Hamptons, she turned off the engine and slumped back into her seat. She'd been careful to sit just over the speed limit the whole way - not enough to get pulled over by any passing police cars but just enough to make it look like she wasn't trying to not get noticed. She was driving a Porsche for crying out loud, she was hardly going to drive _too_ slow.

"Come on, let's get inside." Beckett said. She was pretty sure they'd be safe, for now. Like she'd told Castle, the house was in a false name and had no ties back to her or anyone she knew and she had no neighbours nearby, it was a house on it's own.

"Wow," Castle said, walking through the door and into the hallway. "This is impressive."

"Wait until you see the bedroom." Beckett said, shooting him a seductive glance over her shoulder as she leisurely walked up the stairs.

Castle didn't need to be told twice. Locking the door behind him, he followed her up the stairs and into the bedroom.

* * *

Two hours later and they were driven out of the bedroom by hunger and Castle's need to speak to Alexis. Kate made them both toasted paninis whilst Castle spoke to his daughter.

Finishing up on the phone, Castle joined Beckett in the kitchen, pulling out salad from the fridge to chop up for their meal.

"What did you tell her?" Kate asked.

"Told her I had to go away, didn't say why but I think she probably guessed. Didn't tell her where either, don't want anyone getting to her looking for me. I also called Gina, told her to get a protective detail on Alexis. I'm not having her hurt because of me."

Kate looked at him for a moment. "You're an amazing person, Richard Castle." She said softly. "Alexis is lucky to have a dad like you."

Castle could tell there was a story there but didn't press her for information right now. He didn't want her to freeze him out. He grabbed the bowl of salad he'd prepared and followed her over to the table to eat. "So, are we just gonna lie low for a couple of days or do you have a plan?" He asked.

"Uh..not really. I mean we can do some digging from here, I've got a secure network set up on my computer and access to all the files I'd be able to get from the precinct. I guess that's all we can do for now, until we figure a way out of this."

"Sounds good to me..but uh, how about for the rest of the afternoon we just relax. Forget about the real world and have some time out?" He suggested.

Kate was about to say they needed to find out what they could as soon as they could but she stopped herself. He was right - the past week or two had been manic, she'd hardly slept, only just remembered to eat once or twice a day and was surviving on coffee. Honestly, spending the rest of the day in her pool, reading a book and just lounging around in the sun sounded like heaven. "You know what? That's quite possibly the best plan I've heard in a while." She smiled at him. "Come on, I'll get you some clothes and we can go for a swim."

* * *

Castle was out by the pool, waiting for Kate to join him. He was worried about Alexis and about what was going to happen to him and Beckett but right now, he just wanted to forget about their current predicament and have some time to get to know the woman who was stealing his heart.

Hearing a noise from behind him, he spun around to see Beckett walking towards him with a robe covering her upper body, stopping just below the tantalising curve of her ass. She stopped and looked at him, slowly untying the robe and letting it fall to the floor.

Castle was speechless. Stood in front of him was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met and she was wearing the teeny tiniest bikini he'd ever seen, a bright yellow one, bringing out the golden tan she had from spending so much time outside.

"See something you like, Castle?" She teased, slipping past him and diving gracefully into the pool before he could reply.

Diving in after her, he swam over to her underwater and grabbed her waist. Pulling her front flush to his, he kissed her deeply, a growl emanating from his chest. "Yeah, you." He said, pulling away and slipping back under the water, leaving Beckett flushed and panting.

Smiling to herself, Beckett regained control of herself and began swimming some lengths, trying to relax from the events that had taken place recently. If anyone had said to her when she was first given the assignment to kill Johnson that less than two weeks later she'd be in her pool at the Hamptons with her favourite author, she would have laughed in their face and suggested a psych evaluation. Life had a funny way of throwing in the unexpected, she thought she would have learnt that by now.

Twenty minutes later and they both climbed out of the pool, spreading out on sun loungers to dry off in the sun, both content in their own thoughts.

"You think you'll do this forever?" Castle asked, surprising Beckett with his question.

She didn't know what to say. Two weeks ago and she would have said that it was more than possible that she'd be doing this for as long as she could. But now? Now she'd met a man who awakened feelings within her that she didn't know existed. He was the first person she had ever met that made her seriously consider throwing all of this in and living like a normal person, one who would go to work in the morning and work with Esposito and Ryan solving murders and go home at night and just be _her_. No planning of assassinations of corrupt politicians or terrorists planning major attacks. Just Kate Beckett.

"I um..I don't know. I always thought I would, I thought it was the best thing in the world but now? Now I don't know." She said. "I'm going in, it's getting late and I just wanna relax on the couch for a bit. You coming?" Castle nodded and got up, following her back up to the house.

He knew what she meant. He enjoyed his job, he really did, but over the past day or two he'd thought about giving it all up after this case was done. He knew once it all sunk in Alexis would be angry and that was something he had to be prepared for and maybe she'd have a point. He'd always had the upper hand in his assignments, he was good at what he did. But this case had just reiterated to him how dangerous it was, his life had never been in immediate danger before, but right now it could be over in an hour. That scared him. He couldn't leave Alexis.

"After this case, I'm done." He said.

She spun around to face him. "Really? When did you decide that?"

"About five seconds ago." He laughed. "I enjoy it, I really do, but I've been selfish. I guess I kind of told myself it was okay when Alexis didn't know, but now that she does I'd go into every case knowing that she knew she might never see me again. I can't do that to her."

Beckett smiled at him. "She loves you and I think you could be doing the right thing, I'm not sure I could do it if I had a kid at home."

"You want kids one day?" He asked.

Beckett stared at him and thought about his question. She'd never even considered the possibility of children, making sure she was completely protected with every man she ever got intimate with, but seeing how Castle was with his daughter and the feelings she had towards him, she was beginning to think that having a baby would change her life for the better. _Shit, where did that come from?_

"I uh, I don't know.." She trailed off, not meeting his eye.

"Well, I think you'd make a brilliant mom if you ever had kids." Castle said, and he was flooded with mental images of Beckett padding around his lot barefoot and heavily pregnant..Beckett giving birth to a dark haired blue eyed baby..Beckett nursing their baby as he sat and watched.._woah. Slow down, Castle, you don't want to scare he away!_

Thankfully, Beckett's phone rang at that moment, saving them both from a chat they weren't ready to have just yet.

"Beckett." she answered in her 'work voice'. "Mmhmm..okay. Great, thanks Ryan." She said, cutting off the call and putting the phone back down on the kitchen counter.

"So, what have they found?" Castle asked.

* * *

**_A/N: I didn't know what was going to happen in this chapter, but the words sort of just came out and this was the result! Also, when I first started this story, I had it all planned out and it was going to be about eight chapters long. But then you guys started enjoying it so much that I wanted to keep going. So, I kind of know how it's going to end but there's still a lot more to come! Let me know what you think!_**


	12. Pizza, anyone?

_"So, what have they found?" Castle asked._

* * *

"They've got a lead on Montgomery's killer. Espo received an anonymous tip from an unknown source, normally they'd disregard it given that it was completely unreliable but they're running down any lead they can on this case, they want justice almost as much as me." Beckett explained, relaying what she had just been told by Ryan on their short phone call.

"Did he tell you what this lead is?" Castle questioned. He knew Beckett and the boys wanted this guy badly and he did too, finding who was behind all of this was his only way of escaping this for good and living a normal life - one where Alexis didn't worry every time he walked out of the door.

"He didn't say too much just in case the calls are being intercepted, we can't trust anyone right now except those directly involved. But he did say that they were given the address of a business on the upper west side, the tip said the person they want is connected to them." She said.

Right, that was good, wasn't it? They needed to get out of this, both of them. He needed to be a proper dad to his daughter and Beckett..well he didn't know what she was going to do after this was over, that was up to her, he just hoped her plans for the future involved him somehow.

Anyway, we can forget about that for now." Kate said, surprising herself - since when did she push work to one side when there was more to be done? "What do you want to do about dinner? We have food in the fridge if you want me to cook or we can order in?"

Given that the rest of this day was meant to be about relaxing, Castle didn't want her to be cooking. "I think we should order in, pizza?" He suggested.

"Sure," she smiled at him, "anything in particular or are you not fussy?"

"Anything's fine with me. But no mushrooms. Or pineapple. Or-"

"How about you order it, Castle?" She interrupted. "Then we can be sure you'll like it."

"Right. Yeah. Good idea.." Castle said, scrambling around to find his phone - before remembering he didn't have one at the moment.

Kate just laughed at him, he really was adorable. "Use the landline in the office, it's got a secure line. I'm going to have a bath while we wait for it." She said, heading up the stairs.

Castle watched her as she went, and he figured she could tell he was watching her - he was pretty sure that sway of her hips wasn't something she did naturally.

Beckett sashayed upstairs to her bathroom, adding the extra swish of her hips to tease Castle. She'd had enough training for her job to know when someone was watching her, and having Castle here to watch? Well, she was going to tease him every chance she got. Heading into the bathroom, she turned on the taps and poured in a splash of her favourite bubble bath, before slipping though the door to her adjoining bedroom, stripping off her dress and bikini as she went.

Five minutes later and she was sinking into the bubble bath with her copy of In a Hail of Bullets - it was quite possibly her absolute favourite of his, if she had to choose. However, a few minutes later and she was beginning to think she wouldn't be able to read any of it, she couldn't concentrate. It's not like she had to concentrate a huge amount - she'd read this book almost enough times to be able to recite it backwards in Spanish, but nothing was going in right now.

Putting the book on the small table she had next to the bath, she couldn't help but let her mind wander back to the conversation she'd had with Castle before Ryan had - thankfully - interrupted. Did she want kids? She always would have said no, it wouldn't be fair to bring a child into the world with her current lifestyle as well as the fact that she'd need another person to get pregnant in the first place, but she'd listened to Castle and what he had said about quitting after this. What was stopping her doing the same? She'd been doing this for around six years now and she still hadn't come any closer to killing the guy behind her moms murder and she was beginning to wonder if putting herself in danger like this day in, day out was worth it. Was it what her mom would want her to do? It's not like if she quit then there would be no one taking out these scumbags, they'd manage without her. And now that Montgomery was gone, she wasn't sure she wanted to do it anyway. Who was going to take over? What if they weren't quite so lenient with her less than by the book methods? For the first time in six years, Kate Beckett was seriously considering jacking all of it in for good, just being a regular cop. And she wasn't above admitting that the feelings she had for the man downstairs ordering them pizza had something to do with the decision she was thinking of making.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a quiet knock on the door, followed by "Kate? Can I come in?"

She rolled her eyes. He just couldn't leave her alone. "Yeah Castle, you can come in."

"Hey," he said, closing the door behind him again, moving into the room to sit on the stool she had next to the bath. "Just wanted to-" he broke off as his eyes found the table next to her. _Crap_. Looking back to her and then back to the book, he picked it up and held it up in front of them both. "So, you really are a fan, huh?" He asked with a gloating smile.

"Don't let it go to your head, Castle." She said in a voice that suggested she was panicking a lot less than she actually was. She just prayed he wouldn't open- too late.

Castle opened the book and looked down at the page, seeing his own handwriting jumping out at him. Reading what he had written, he looked back up at Kate who was starting to blush slightly.

"I remember this!" He exclaimed.

"Don't be silly, how could you possibly remember? There were a good two hundred people there that day and you must have done at least a thousand book signings since then."

"No, I do. You were the girl with the red scarf..and you were with a friend..a blonde one?"

Beckett laughed, obviously he'd remember seeing Maddie.

He took her laugh for what it was and rushed to correct her. "No no, not like that. I mean yeah, your friend was blonde but I only remember that because of you. It was you that had my attention from the beginning. I saw you when I came in, while you were waiting in the queue, and I knew then what I was going to write in your book. Usually it's just a generic comment, you know 'thank you, enjoy the book' or just my name but you were different." He said. "How did I not realise when I saw you again? Those eyes haunted me for months.."

Kate stared at him. How could he possibly remember that afternoon so long ago? It had been about six weeks after her mother had died and her father was drowning his sorrows in a bottle of scotch and she had dragged Maddie to the nearest book shop to get his newest novel. She had stumbled across his first by accident, her mother had left it in the lounge, never getting around to reading it and Kate had opened one night, desperate to do whatever she could to escape for an hour or two. She'd read the whole thing in three and a half hours and was desperate for more. Getting to the book shop that day, she was the happiest she had been since before her mother had died when she found out he was there to do a signing, and so she had convinced Maddie to stay with her, joining the long queue of people waiting to get their books signed.

"So um, that must have been just after your mom died, right?" He asked tentatively, not wanting her to push him out again.

Sighing heavily, she suddenly decided she was tired of not talking about it, she wanted someone to talk to. "Yeah, it was, about six weeks after." She smiled sadly, "Maddie - my blonde friend - just wanted to get out of there so we could go shopping, it was the first time I'd done anything properly social since my mom had died but I convinced her to stay with me. Guess it was worth it, huh."

"Yeah, it really was." He said, looking back down at the words he had written so many years ago.

_To the girl with the beautiful eyes. They hide a pain beyond your years, yet still manage to complete your beauty. Richard Castle_.

* * *

Ten minutes later and Kate had convinced Castle to head back downstairs and wait for their pizza to arrive so that she could get out of the bath in peace. She was still in a slight state if shock - she had been surprised that day when she'd got home and seen what he'd written, there eyes had only met for a brief moment and yet he'd managed to put a lot down in words. And now, knowing that he remembered, she couldn't quite believe it. This was her favourite author and she was supposed to have killed him by now and yet here they were, in her house at the Hamptons and he knew how much of a fan she was. _Life was full of surprises. _

Padding downstairs in a pair of leggings and a baggy jumper, she looked around for Castle, finding him at her computer in his office.

"What're you doing?" She asked.

His head snapped up at her words, he hadn't noticed her come in. "Oh..I just uh, had an idea. For um, my new book." He said, not quite meeting her eyes.

"Mhmm, and why are you looking like a five year old who just got caught trying to steal another cookie when they thought their parents weren't looking?"

"I- um..what?"

"Okay I wanna read it."

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a little story.." He broke off at one look from her. "Okay." He said, giving in. That look was scary.

She walked over and brought up the recent document that he had hastily tried to hide from her. While she read what he'd written, he couldn't help but bury his nose in her hair, inhaling the intoxicating scent of her cherry shampoo.

"Are you smelling my hair?" She asked, eyes not moving from the screen. "Anyway, what even is this? This story you've concocted."

There was something in her steely gaze that stopped him from making up another story and lying to her. "Just an idea for a new book." He said simply.

"And I'm assuming it's just a coincidence that this character you've written about has a remarkable resemblance to me?"

"You see, you don't strike me as someone who believes in coincidence.." Another narrow eyed glare, "right, yes, okay well yeah, she's sort of a bit like you."

Moving away from him, he thought she was going to forget about it, but as she reached the door she turned back and said "delete it." Before heading out to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Beckett poured herself a large glass of wine. What was he playing at, writing a book about her? He was a nightmare was Richard Castle. She smiled to herself. He might be a nightmare but she was crazy about him, not that she'd tell him that, obviously.

"Is that pizza not here yet?" Castle asked, emerging from the office, just as someone knocked at the door.

Beckett looked at him. "Did you leave the money outside and ask them to knock and then leave the pizza there?"

"Of course I did, Beckett, do you think I'm an idiot?"

She didn't reply.

"Right, well they should have gone by now, I'll go and get the pizza shall I?" He said, heading towards the front door.

Beckett pulled plates down from the cupboard and set them on the table and poured Castle a glass of wine too. He came back in and put the pizza box in the centre of the table, opening it and pulling out a slice for each of them.

"Oh god I'm starving." Beckett said, taking a large bite.

* * *

Thirty minutes later and they'd demolished the pizza and had retreated to the sofa in the lounge with their wine.

"So, Castle, you got any bright ideas on how we can get out of this?"

"Usually I would but right now? I got nothing." He replied. That wasn't like him, he always had some crazy theory. Usually involving the CIA or alien abductions.

"Mm, me either. It's weird, I'm usually pretty good at stuff like this..it's what I do, after all, but this is a case like no other. I really don't know what to do."

"We'll figure something out, perhaps after a good nights sleep." He said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"You're about as subtle as a bomb, Castle." She laughed. "Come on," she said, standing up and holding out her hand, "let's go to bed."

Little did they know as he followed her up the stairs and into her bedroom, that the empty pizza box that was outside with the rest of the rubbish had given away their location. Buried within the cardboard, a tiny tracking device had been planted, giving away their secret.

* * *

**_A/N: sorry for the slow update - again! Anyway, I would love to hear suggestions on where you'd like this to go, or even just a little idea for something you'd like to be brought up/to happen! Also, reviews would make my day :) _**


	13. Another Day at the Hamptons

**_A/N: thank you to _FDWojo_ for pointing out the huge mistake I made in the last chapter - let's see if I can work around it! And thank you to everyone else who reviewed :) think I just about manage to keep it T Rated! (PS. Currently at 104 followers?! You're amazing!) _**

* * *

In a small warehouse on the outskirts of Brooklyn, three men sat around a desk with three computer screens. One displayed pictures of their targets, one had an internet search engine on the screen and the other had five red dots blinking in separate locations on the geographical map. It was these five red dots that they were interested in the most right now..

"So," said the first man. "All five of these are possible locations for our targets?"

"Yes. They were last seen heading out of the city after leaving the twelfth precinct. We had eyes on them but they got lost in traffic, that woman can drive, man." A second man replied, he was in slight admiration of the way she had driven that car, it had been extremely impressive. "Now, we have men on the inside who fed information back to us suggesting that all five of these locations could be where they're currently hiding out."

"On the inside of what? How can we be sure that this is what we need?" The third man asked. He was doubtful of this plan, too many variables that could screw it all up.

"We're as sure as we can be. These five men were sent undercover as delivery drivers for various take out companies - the usual guys are currently in our custody and we made them call in sick, before sending in our guys as replacements - no one looked too hard at their documents or anything, it was a busy night and they were just grateful for the extra help. So, we had these guys place tracking devices in any order that could have come from our targets and this was the result."

"And we're to check each of these locations and hope one of them is right? What if they didn't order take out?" The first man asked. He couldn't believe it would be that simple to find them, these guys were good - brilliant even, if they wanted to hide they'd make sure they couldn't be found.

"We've been led to believe that the two of them have formed an allegiance. We know they left together and we have to hope they went somewhere where ordering in was their only option of eating or that they were too worn out from the previous days' events to cook."

"And if it isn't them? There's millions of people in this city, any number of them could have ordered take out last night, how can we be sure one if these is right?"

"We can't." He said simply. "But all of these places we have pinpointed either have ties to our targets or they've been spotted and we have a possible eye witness matches to them. They've been on the national news, remember, anyone could have called in if they saw them."

"And if none of them are who we're after?"

"Then we go for plan b." The second man explained. "We go after Alexis Castle and hope using her as leverage will draw her father and his new partner out from wherever they're hiding."

* * *

Over at the Hamptons, Kate woke to the smell of coffee. Smiling to herself, she stretched out her naked body under the sheets and realised she could quite easily get used to this - nights filled with hot, passionate love making with Castle and waking up to him making her coffee. Slipping out of bed, she padded into the bathroom to clean up a bit before slipping on one of his shirts and heading downstairs to greet him good morning.

"Ah, good, you're up." He said when he saw her enter the kitchen. "I thought I was going to have to come and wake you! Now, what do you want for breakfast - eggs? Pancakes? Waffles? Toast?" He asked.

When he didn't receive an answer from her, he looked over to find her staring at him with a hint of a smile lighting up her beautiful face. "What? Do I have flour on my face or something?"

"No," she laughed, "I was just thinking how perfect this is." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them but seeing his reaction to them she didn't even care.

Castles face lit up with the biggest grin she'd seen yet, his eyes twinkling. She'd meant what she said - this was perfect. "Well, you know what would make it even more perfect?" He asked.

"No. What's that?"

Walking over to where she was stood on the other side of the kitchen, he pulled her close to him and whispered "if you gave me a good morning kiss." Leaning back, he grinned at her before capturing her lips with his own.

They broke apart panting, her cheeks flushed and eyes darkening. "Morning, Castle."

"Mm, now it's perfect." He said, kissing her again. He deepened the kiss this time, his tongue slipping past her lips to explore her mouth. He ran his tongue over the roof of her mouth, arousal shooting through him when she moaned in response.

Kate nipped and sucked on his tongue and bottom lip, her hands moving to his hips to pull him even closer but Castle had other ideas; yanking her up by the hips, he placed her on the edge of the kitchen counter, her legs wrapping around his waist.

He moved to her neck, finding that spot he had just discovered that drove her _wild_. Sucking gently, he was rewarded with a gasp and _oh fuck_ her legs were tightening around his waist drawing him even closer and her nails were digging into his shoulders and _oh my god_ she was going to kill him.

"Kate.." He grumbled, reluctantly pulling away. "I wanted to make you breakfast."

"Screw breakfast, take me back to bed." She mumbled, lowering her hands down his chest and over his stomach and _crap_ if she went any further he wouldn't be able to stop her..

"Kate." He said, a little more sternly this time, "stop. Before I can't stop you anymore."

And then she broke the last of his resolve by slipping her hand under the waistband of his boxer shorts and grasping him firmly. Pulling her off of the counter, he carried her to the stairs with every intention of taking her back up to the bedroom but that plan went out of the window the second she bit down _hard_ on his neck at the same time she ran her hand over him. Forgetting his earlier plan, he lowered her onto the stairs and ripped his shirt off of her.

Breakfast came much later, after them of course.

* * *

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Kate and Rick. They eventually made it out for breakfast - which was more of a brunch in the end and followed it by heading down to the private beach for a swim.

After lunch, they retreated to her office to dig up whatever they could. Kate found out that Castle was particularly skilled at hacking into secure files - in this instance that meant Montgomery's. She wouldn't usually have condoned such behavior, but they were desperate. As much as she was enjoying herself here with him, she knew it couldn't last forever, they had to get out somehow.

"This is ridiculous, we're getting nowhere, none of these files suggest that Montgomery knew any more than we do." Castle complained. Glancing over at the clock, Kate noticed it was 4.30 - they'd been in here for over three hours and had found nothing.

"I know." Kate sighed in defeat. As much as she hated to admit it, they were getting nowhere, neither of them could find anything that would help and they were beginning to run out of ideas. "Look, why don't you go and give Alexis a ring and then we can take a bath or something before we cook dinner."

"Yeah, okay." He agreed. "I won't be long." He told her, kissing the top of her head before leaving the room.

Once he'd gone, Kate gave up. She was getting nowhere and she was beginning to think they were going to be stuck here forever. She was brought out of her mood by the ringing of her phone - luckily, Castle was using the landline, both of them were secure so it didn't matter.

"Hello?" She said, swiping her phone to answer it.

"Beckett! Oh thank god you're okay..listen-"

"Woah, Espo - calm down! What's happened?" Beckett asked, she was slightly worried at his concerned tone, it wasn't like Esposito to get flustered or upset, that was Ryan's job.

"We've had word from a contact down in Robbery - there's been four break ins just today, various locations in the city, no one was hurt, just scared..." He rattled off quickly.

"Uh, great. Thanks for telling me Espo, but uh, I've got slightly bigger problems right now.."

"No, Beckett, wait.." He said and what he told her next made her blood run cold.

* * *

"Hey, Alexis, how are you?" Castle asked when his daughter picked up the phone.

"Daddy! Hi, I'm good. Um, are you okay?" She asked tentatively, slightly worried to ask about his current situation.

"I'm fine, Pumpkin." He reassured her.

"And uh, Detective Beckett? Is she okay too?"

"Yeah, Kate is fine too,sweetheart, we're both fine." He sighed, as much as he was loving spending time here with Kate, he was missing his daughter and it was still in the back of his mind that they'd go after her next. "Is Gram home yet?" Not that having his mother around would make Alexis much safer but he knew having her there would make his daughter worry less.

"Yeah, she got home last night. I um, told her you were out of town on an emergency book signing, I think she brought it." Castle was glad that Alexis wasn't bringing up the security detail he had on her and his mother, he was assuming that meant she hadn't seen them. They were under strict instructions not to make themselves known unless absolutely necessary and they knew his mother was perfectly safe. Well, safe enough.

"Thank you, Pumpkin. I'll be home as soon as I can, I promise."

"I know, daddy. Just..just stay safe, okay. And tell Detective Beckett to be careful too and I'll see you both soon, okay?"

"Yeah, Pumpkin, real soon, I love you."

"I love you too, daddy." She replied, hanging up the phone.

Castle was glad Kate had suggested he ring Alexis, he felt much better now he'd spoken to her and knew everything was okay back at home. Heading back into the office, he had a smile on his face but that soon dropped when he saw the panicked expression on Kate's face.

"Kate? What happened? What did you find?" He asked, rushing over to her side.

"I didn't find anything, Castle. Espo rang..he told me about four break ins that have happened around the city today." She turned to face him, her face as white as a sheet, "I think they know where we are, Castle."

"Hey hey, calm down," he soothed, "you said yourself that this house isn't connected to you and we can probably safely say that they didn't follow us here, they've left us alone for two days."

"But uh, these break ins. No one was hurt but the victims they all um, all of them looked similar to me or you.."

* * *

**_A/N: so if you didn't realise, by putting a tracking device in the pizza box, it suggested they already knew where C&B were - so I hope I corrected that massive mistake in this chapter! I'm sorry if it's a little over the top, but I had to correct my mistake some how and hey - what about this story is realistic?! As always, reviews would make me very happy :)_**


	14. I know that name

_**A/N: not a very long one today but I wanted to get another update in this weekend!**_

* * *

_"But uh, these break ins. No one was hurt but the victims they all um, all of them looked similar to me or you.."_

* * *

"I uh..what?" Castle asked, he was in a state of shock, he never thought it would end up this bad.

"Four break ins were reported and robbery didn't think anything of it until the second one. A friend of mine, Tom Demming, he made the connection - the female victims from both cases looked similar to me and Espo said one of the males looked like you. Castle, we're wanted for the murder of a police Captain, not to mention whoever else is after us!"

"Hey hey, calm down, we're gonna get out of this, okay!" He reassured.

"How?" She sniffed.

Good point. "Well, if Esposito is right, then these guys are probably figuring out right about now that we aren't in the other four locations. That quite possibly means they're coming here next. And when they do, we'll be ready. We take down as many as we can - shoot to injure, not kill. We tie them up in the basement and torture them for information."

"Yeah, except holding someone against their will is still illegal in the state of New York."

"Mm, I believe they call it kidnapping. But you're the police, surely you can spin some sort of tale?"

"Yeah, being a suspect in the murder of your boss usually puts a dampener on those sorts of things." She said, "but I guess we have no other choice, do we?"

"Unless you wanna leave? Head back to the precinct, see what the guys have got..I'm sure your colleagues there won't believe the stories?" He suggested.

"Uh, yeah..I guess we could.."

"Great, let's pack up your stuff and get out of here then." He noticed her hesitation as he went to walk away, "hey, we're gonna be alright, I promise."

"After this I'm done," she admitted, "for good. I'm going back to being a regular cop."

"And I'll be right behind you every step of the way," he promised.

* * *

Castle was pacing downstairs by the front door whilst Beckett hurriedly packed anything she needed. He was worried, way more than he was letting on, he wanted to be strong for her but it was getting harder and harder - they had no idea who they were up against and he was willing to bet it was something worse than either of them had ever come across.

"Done." She said, bounding down the stairs, "let's get out of here."

Castle followed her out of the door, making sure it shut properly as he closed it. He was too busy checking the door that he almost walked straight into Beckett who had stopped dead in her tracks and she was staring at something coming up her long driveway. He followed her gaze with his own eyes and immediately panicked - they were too late, they'd been found.

"Kate?" He asked, unsure of how she wanted to play this.

"Gun," she said, snapping back to reality. "I'm not hiding, not anymore, I've had enough. I'm taking them out or I'm going to die trying."

Oh god he really wished she wouldn't say things like that. "Okay, looks like we have company, then."

"You can go, if you want," she whispered quickly, "take the car, there's a secret exit under the garage.."

"I'm not going anywhere without you." He stated simply and she knew better than to argue.

"Then we better get ready.." The car was fast approaching the house now and they could make out three men..that was good. Three was better than 10. Three they could take.

Beckett shot at the front windscreen and managed to take out the passenger. They were down to two. Two against two. They could get out of this. But uh, killing them wasn't getting answers "we taking them all out? I thought you wanted answers," he asked, noticing as the car came to an abrupt halt at the sudden death of one of their group.

"Just a warning." She replied, keeping her eyes and gun trained on the remaining two.

They both climbed out of the car, one of them shooting at Castle and Beckett as he did - and missing by a clear mile. Castle shot back, hitting the first shooter in the stomach - from the brief glance he got at the wound before the guy fell to heap on the floor, he would say it was enough to stop him for now but not hitting anywhere that would kill him instantly. He might bleed out in an hour or two, but if he gave them the answers they needed then they'd get him to hospital.

Meanwhile, Beckett had her gun trained on the remaining man who was casting worried glances around - seemed to have figured out he was now outnumbered. In a move that shocked Castle and Beckett, he dropped his gun to the ground and raised his hands above his head. "Please," he cried out, "don't shoot!"

"I'm not going to shoot, not if you tell me what I want to know."

"I..I don't know anything," he pleaded, "I was told to take you both out, no questions asked."

"Who gave the order?" Castle asked.

"The chief."

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to live, kid." Beckett threatened. Jesus, Castle was scared of her right now, he was surprised the guy in front of them wasn't spilling his guts to her.

"Wait! His name..um I heard them call him Coonan..yeah, that was it."

"First name?"

"Oh god..I don't know! Um.."

Beckett watched the guy search for the name - she had a feeling she already knew who it was though. She had looked into her mothers case once more since making detective, Lanie had looked over the autopsy report and realised the stab wounds were that of a professional killer and they were the same as the stab wounds in their latest victim. They'd brought Coonan in but he'd played them and had got away by holding her at gunpoint as she walked him out of the precinct. She was pretty sure the guy behind this was the same man who killed her mother.

"Dick! Name was Dick Coonan!"

_Son of a bitch._

* * *

"Beckett? Who is he?" Castle asked. They'd handcuffed both surviving attackers and had propped them up against the side of the house, placing as much padding as they could the guys bullet wound.

"The man who killed my mom." And in that moment he saw the very thing that would be the ending of Kate Beckett - if she didn't get justice for her mom when she was so close to the man who had killed her he wasn't sure she'd be able to survive it.

"How do you know?" He asked and she spilled out everything, from Lanie looking over the case to catching the guy and how he conned them, to having him slip away and how it had almost destroyed her.

She expected some words of comfort, the usual Castle spiel on how it was all going to be okay and they'd figure it out but what he told her shocked her; "then I guess we better find him and take him out for good then."

And with those words she fell the rest of the way in love with the man stood in front of her.

* * *

**_A/N: feeling a little 'is anyone even reading this anymore' at the moment because not many of you are reviewing. It'll only take a minute and you just need to let me know you're still with me and let me know what you think at the moment..it would be very greatly appreciated, I don't want to write if no one is there to enjoy it! (Thank you if you have reviewed!) It's true what they say - lots of nice reviews make you write faster!_**

_**twitter: holaitsjade | tumblr: stanaabanana**_


	15. Back on the road

**_A/N: okay you guys are seriously the best - I'm blown away by all of your wonderful reviews on the last chapter, never expected that many of you to review for me! Glad to know you're all still with me, and I'm giving you another update, yay! Thank you!_**

**_PS: happy Castle Monday!_**

* * *

_And with those words she fell the rest of the way in love with the man stood in front of her._

* * *

_Wow_. It hit her like a ton of bricks. She was in love. Kate Beckett, homicide detective slash assassin, who had been in every single relationship with one foot out of the door, was in love. With her favourite author. Who she was supposed to have killed by now. Wow.

"Kate? Are you okay?" Castle's worried voice brought her back from her thoughts.

She blushed slightly, extremely glad that he couldn't read minds. "Ah, yeah. I'm fine. Okay, so we go after Coonan. But what about these two?" She asked, gesturing to the two hostages they currently had.

"Send them away? No, listen," he said when she raised her eyebrows at him, "he's just given you the name so that you didn't shoot him. He's hardly going to go running back to Coonan now, is he, not unless he wants to die anyway." He could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she thought about what he'd said.

"Okay," she agreed, "we let them go, he's gonna need a hospital anyway. But uh, what about the dead guy?" They could hardly let them go driving a dead body back to the city.

Castle thought for a moment before coming to a solution. "Drag him round the back, I'll call Gina and have her send people over to get rid of him. Send the other two off to a hospital and we go after Coonan."

"Wow, you've thought of everything," she praised, a hint of a smile crossing her lips.

Twenty minutes later and they'd dragged the body from the car and dumped him in the garden. Castle was currently inside on the phone to Gina and Kate was about to let their hostages know the plan. She wasn't quite finished yet though..

Kneeling down, she peeled away the blood soaked padding from the gunshot wound actor had inflicted. He'd done well, she was impressed - not near anything vital, he'd be fine until they got him to a hospital.

"So, we've got a plan," she announced. "We're going to let you go." Both men looked at her in shock. "Well, like my partner pointed out - given that you've told us who's behind this, you aren't going to want to see him anytime soon, not unless you want to be left to bleed out in an alleyway." _Like my mother_, she added silently. "So, that's the plan. Just one more thing..where can we find him, this Coonan guy?"

"I..I don't know.."

"No? Shame, that is." She said as she pressed down hard next to the bullet wound in their victim. He cried out in pain and Kate held it for a few seconds before moving away again. "Want to try again?"

* * *

"So, how did you get it out of them, where we could find Coonan?" They were back in Beckett's baby, speeding down the highway back to the city, the precinct if Castle was guessing correctly. Their hostages had been set free and should be on their way to the local hospital.

"A little persuasion technique that I've used a few times. Do you really think they'll stay away from Coonan?"

"They will if they know what's best for them," Castle replied. They should be afraid of Coonan finding out they'd snitched on him, but he was beginning to think they should be more afraid if the woman currently driving them at breakneck speed down the highway. "So, why are we heading back to the precinct if we know where Coonan is?"

"According to our source, Coonan is currently at the gym and will be in a bar on the east side from 8pm, so I'm getting us back up. But I can't exactly call Espo and Ryan and just ask them to send me a unit with no explanation, so I thought we'd head back there and grab something to eat and fill them in before interrupting Coonan's evening. They'll be more likely to help if they know the full story."

Castle was about to open his mouth and tell her it was a good idea but she spun a corner at 110mph and overtook another car at the same time that he grabbed a hold of the door handle instead. "Jesus, Kate. Are you trying to kill us both before we even get there?"

"Oh stop being such a baby, Castle, I know how to drive," she replied with a smile. "Besides, it's already 7 and we still need to get Espo and Ryan on side before going after him."

Ten minutes later and Castle prized his fingers off of the door and climbed out of the car, relief flooding him when his feet hit solid ground. He was beginning to wonder if they'd make it back alive with Jenson Button in the drivers seat.

"Oh Castle, you'd think I'd just raced around Circuit of the Americas."

Castle suppressed a groan. She drove a Porsche like a pro and was now mentioning Formula 1 to him. She was perfection. Absolute perfection.

"Come on my little speed freak, let's get you inside before that car of yours draws too much attention to us," he said as he hurried them inside the precinct, grateful when they had the elevator to themselves, no doubt the majority of the officers had gone home for the night. "You sure the boys are gonna be here?"

"They should be unless a body dropped in the last hour." They were usually here until at least 8, if not later when they were particularly busy. The elevator doors opened and Beckett was pleased when she saw that only Esposito and Ryan were still here, she'd rather get this sorted before facing the rest of her colleagues.

"Woah, what are you two doing here?" Esposito asked as he spotted them walking across the bullpen.

"We need your help," Beckett explained quickly, "but we don't have long. Where's Ryan?"

"He's in the break room, getting coffee. What's going on?"

"Come on, we'll join him, we can explain it to you together that way," Beckett told him, leading the three of them to the break room to meet Ryan.

"Hey! What are you two doing here?" Ryan asked and Beckett rolled her eyes. "Come on, sit down, we need your help but I want to explain why before I ask you too.

Over the next fifteen minutes, Beckett explained - with Castle's help - what they had learnt and what their plan was. When they'd finished, Kate waited with bated breath for their answers, they desperately needed help with this, they were so close and she didn't want them to screw it up now.

"So..will you back us up in there?" Castle asked. He could tell how much catching this guy meant to Beckett and he wanted so badly to help her.

"Yeah, of course we will, right Javi?"

"Yeah, sure. Didn't even need to ask. So, where is this son of a bitch?"

Beckett breathed out a sigh of relief and she felt Castle relax next to her, they'd have much more of a chance with Javi and Ryan backing them up. She couldn't believe she was so close to getting the guy who killed her mom. She was going to make him suffer, make him hurt before finally putting him out of his misery - not before she found out who had hired him in the first place though. Oh how times had changed - he used to be the one being hired to kill and now he was on the other side of the table, hiring people to kill for him.

"Great, thank you guys," she said and Castle gripped her hand under the table, "we need to get going, we have an evening in a bar to interrupt."

* * *

**_A/N: so I'm going to try and get another update up in about 48 hours (Wednesday night UK time) and then another one closer to the weekend. I __think we're getting close to the end now, maybe around 17/18 chapters..unless I get a mad brainwave and think of something else! Thank you for sticking with me through this slightly weird story!_**

**_PS: I have no idea if you know who Jenson Button is in America, but he's a famous formula 1 driver..I don't know many and none I know are American!_**

**_twitter - holaitsjade | tumblr - stanaabanana_**


	16. Well well well, look who it is

_**A/N: yay, I'm updating again! Thank you for the reviews so far!**_

* * *

The four of them left the break room and began heading out of the precinct to begin their mission.

"Wait," Espo called out, "are you sure this is a good idea?"

"What do you mean a good idea? No, it's a ridiculous idea but I can't let him get away," Kate replied, the emotion evident in her voice. "Javi, this man killed my mom. You know what I was like back then, you know what I was like when Coonan got away last time..I _have_ to do this."

Esposito hesitated for a moment before making his decision. "Okay, fine," was all he said. He still wasn't 100% convinced that it was the best way to go about it but Kate was right - he had been there when Coonan got away and she had been a mess, even if he wasn't completely for the idea, he'd do it for her, for her mom.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief and the four of them stepped into the elevator in silence, no one daring to speak. Everyone present knew how much this meant to Kate - even Rick who had only just found out the whole story.

Kate was bubbling with a mixture of nerves and anticipation. She was desperate for this, desperate to get this guy and finally achieve justice for her mom and to end this mess that her and Castle had found themselves in. They were going to end this and get out - together, Kate didn't care about keeping one foot out of the door anymore, she was in this completely. She was in love and she'd be damned if she let that get away from her.

They decided on taking two cars, Ryan and Espo in one and Castle and Beckett in the other. Castle thought he'd seen a slight flicker of disappointment when Esposito realised he wouldn't get to ride in Kate's Porsche..he was on the verge of saying the two of them could swap, he wasn't too sure about getting back in the car with his little racer behind the wheel.

Before he could suggest it though, Beckett had pushed him into the passenger seat of the car and was on her way round to the drivers side before he could react. "Buckle up kitten, we're going to catch a scumbag," she said as she climbed in and did up her own seatbelt.

Checking her rear view mirror, she saw Esposito pull away from behind her and drive off with Ryan sat next to him. She was extremely grateful to them for agreeing to do this, she knew it was her mess - well, hers and Castle's really, but they had stepped up to stand by her just like she had guessed they would - well, she'd do the same for them after all.

Ten minutes later and they'd pulled up a couple of blocks away from the club, Espo pulling in behind Beckett - he'd left first but not much could beat her baby.

"Okay, so we all know the plan?" She asked as they walked quickly around to where they were pretty sure Coonan was at the moment. The boys nodded in confirmation but Kate was too dependent on this to not double check everything. "Castle and I will hide out in the back room and you two are going to persuade Coonan to go back there before-"

"Beckett, we know the plan, okay?" Espo told her, she was starting to irritate them with her insistence that they keep going over it.

"Right. Okay. Well, we're gonna slip in the back, you two go round the front. See you soon," Kate told them as they arrived at the back of the club.

Once Espo and Ryan had headed round the corner to the front entrance, Castle prized open the door and headed inside, Kate following close behind. Luckily, the back hallway was deserted and they made their way to the back room undetected. They hid inside and were grateful to see that it was empty - they didn't want to hurt anyone else if they didn't need too.

Beckett began pacing the room, wringing her hands in nervousness. "Hey, it's gonna be okay, you know?" Castle soothed.

"Is it? You can't know that, Castle. Look I know you've been in dangerous situations before but this is different, okay? This guy is nothing like anything you've seen before.."

"And he's going to be in a room alone with three cops, one who doubles as an assassin and a writer slash assassin. It's going to be fine, we'll get him, I prom-"

"Don't," she interrupted sharply, "please, don't promise me something you can't definitely follow through with," she pleaded. She'd never be able to forgive him if he made that promise and it all went wrong. But before they attempted to take out one of the most dangerous men she'd ever come across, there was something Castle needed to know. "Castle, there's something I have to tell you,"

"What? You're secretly a CIA spy too? No, wait, you're from another planet?" He joked, earning himself an eye roll from Kate.

"No. I just- if there's no way out of this and something happens, no matter what I need you to know this-"

"Hey hey, don't talk like that!" She was starting to worry him now, saying things like that.

"Just hear me out, okay?" He nodded. "It's been a complete roller coaster of a ride since I met you and things have sort of turned out the complete opposite to how either of us could have guessed but I'm..oh god, Castle, I'm in love with you."

Castle stared at her in shock, he was in love with her too, of course, but he never in a million years would have guessed she was in love with him. However, before he could tell her how he felt, Espostio and Ryan burst into the room - hauling Dick Coonan in with them.

"Well well well, look who it is," Kate snarled as she spun to face the door. Castle was surprised the man didn't surrender there and then, she was _scary_ when she was angry.

"Ah, Detective Kate Beckett," Coonan said with a smirk, "and Mr Castle too, I see," he added, his gaze falling on Castle. "So, are you going to tell me why you got Hispanic and Irish here to drag me away from my evening?"

Kate couldn't believe the cheek of him, how could he stand there and question what they were doing? This man had killed her mom in cold blood, left her to bleed out in an alleyway just so he could make a quick buck and then he'd ordered her and Castle to kill each other. Obviously he had been the one to order the hit on Johnson.._wait_, she thought it was the chief who was behind this? And then the penny dropped - the chief had ordered the hit on Johnson, but Coonan was his secretary of sorts, a guy like the chief wasn't going to have his hit men coming to him with every little update, oh no, he'd have someone to do that for him - and that's where Coonan came in.

"So," she asked, "when did you stop killing people and get to order others to do it for you?" She asked and she noticed him recoil slightly, he obviously hadn't expected her to work that out. _You have no idea who you're dealing with_, she said to him silently.

"Very good, Detective, I'm impressed. Let's just say that the guy I work for takes my word very seriously, he was more than..happy, shall we say when I suggested we have you two try and take each other out."

"And who is it you work for, exactly?" Castle asked, moving to stand next to Beckett.

"Oh, so the writer monkey speaks does he?" Coonan said, looking over at Castle and trying to shrug off Esposito and Ryan who still had a tight grip on each of his arms.

"Who do you work for?"

"Oh I wouldn't worry, you'll never touch him."

Beckett quickly saw that they weren't getting anywhere with that line of enquiry and changed the subject. "Okay, so you aren't going to tell us who you work for. Wanna talk about my mother?"

"I'm not sure I've ever met her, why don't you refresh my memory?"

"You son of a bitch," Beckett growled and before Castle could stop her, she swung her fist into his face, quite possibly breaking his nose.

To give credit where credit's due, Coonan recovered pretty quickly for a guy who had just had one hell of a right hook thrown at him. "Oh, a bit of a temper. Now that's kinda hot.." This time it was Castle who stepped towards him.

"You watch your mouth," he spat out. That was his - well, his girlfriend? He wasn't sure they were actually a couple but Beckett loved him and that was good enough for him, for now, anyway.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was stepping on anybody's toes," he smiled at Castle before switching his gaze to Kate, "I think he likes you," he teased and it took all of Beckett's strength not to punch him again.

"You better start talking, Mr Coonan. You're considerably outnumbered right now and it won't be long before we start making you pay."

"Oh wow, you really think that by taking me out this will be over?" Coonan asked.

What did he mean? He was on top of all of this, he was the one who had sent men after them on more than one occasion..surely killing him would end it all?

"And now I see the cogs turning. Finally realised that even if I'm gone there's still someone above me who will want you dead?"

Castle looked at Beckett. This hadn't been in their plan, this wasn't supposed to be happening. "Kate.." He said, trying to see what she wanted to do.

Kate had had enough, she didn't care what Coonan said, so what if someone still wanted them dead after this? The man stood in front of her had killed her mom and it was about time he paid for that. Pulling out her gun, she took the safety off and aimed it at Coonan, finger firmly pressed against the trigger.

* * *

**_A/N: I think we're getting to the end now..probably another two chapters? I still haven't completely decided how it's going to end, but I'll give you a hint - I'm a sucker for a happy ending ;)_**


	17. Middle of the night chats

**_A/N: I can't sleep so I'm writing this now. It's currently 1.28am as I start. But also, I have a busy weekend planned so if I update now, you can't get upset if I don't update again until Monday ;)_**

* * *

Castle didn't know what to do. He didn't have a problem with Kate killing Coonan, god knows he deserved it, but he knew how much Kate wanted answers and right now she was giving in - giving him exactly what he wanted when he'd made those comments. Castle could see the satisfaction in Coonan's face, he might be staring down the barrel of a gun, his death quite possibly imminent, but still he had got what he wanted - he had riled up Kate Beckett good and proper. _Dammit_.

"Kate," Castle half whispered, "Kate, you don't have to do this..not yet."

"Castle, leave it," she warned, "I know what I'm doing."

"I know you do sweetheart but think about it, I know you want him dead - I do too, remember, but think about your-"

"Castle don't you dare mention my mother. She would have wanted this, she fought for justice which is exactly what I'm doing now - getting justice for her."

"Listen to the writer monkey, Kate. He speaks the truth - who's gonna tell you who killed your mommy if you kill me?"

"Coonan, I swear to god you speak to her without her asking you a direct question once more and it won't just be her gun in your face," Castle growled. This man had put the woman he loved through hell and that was motive enough for him, Coonan was going to pay for what he'd done.

Although it hadn't been his intention, Castle's threat to Coonan had had some sort of effect on Beckett - she lowered her gun and looked to him, surprise etched over her beautiful face.

"Right," Castle said, now that Kate had lowered her weapon, he felt he could focus more on what they wanted without having to worry about her pulling the trigger at any moment. "I think you better start talking. Starting with who you work for?"

* * *

Beckett was silent the whole ride back to the her apartment, she didn't utter one word. Castle drove and she didn't even try and stop him - that's when he knew something was really up, she was more protective over this car than she was about anything else. He didn't press her to talk though, he figured she just needed some time to let the events of this evening sink in.

Kate didn't feel like talking and she was glad Castle hadn't tried to make conversation. She had given him the keys wordlessly, with no fuss - she didn't feel like she was in a fit state to drive right now and given that she was a cop, she probably shouldn't be setting bad examples. She was still in shock, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't really too sure what had happened since leaving the bar. Castle had pushed her into the car and the journey back to her place had passed in a blur.

The next thing she knew she was waking up in her bed, but it was still dark. Rolling over, she glanced at the clock on the bedside table and read that it was 3.47am. _Ugh_. Reaching out for Castle, she was shocked to find him not there - and shocked at herself for automatically searching for him. Climbing out of bed, she grabbed a sweatshirt from a drawer and threw it on over her vest top and shorts, she hadn't remembered getting changed..perhaps Castle did it? Padding out of her bedroom, she wandered into the living room, finding Castle on her couch, tapping away on her laptop.

"Hey. Whatcha doin'?" She asked, laughing when he jumped.

"Jesus, Kate, I didn't hear you. Hey, come sit down," he gestured to the space next to him and she obliged, curling into his side as she sunk onto her couch.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" She asked.

"I could ask you the same question," he replied playfully.

"I woke up, you weren't there," she shrugged and he'd be lying if he said his heart didn't beat a little faster at her admission.

"Sorry. I uh, I've spoken to Gina." Esposito had given him his cell phone back when they met earlier, he hadn't realised until then how much he missed not having it on him.

"Mmhmm, and what did she say?"

"She said not to leave your apartment and she'll be in contact as soon as she can."

"What did you tell her?"

"Everything."

* * *

_Coonan sighed in defeat. "The man I work for is an extremely high up, influential man. You'll never touch him." He repeated._

_"And my mother?"_

_"Was another person getting in the way that needed to be stopped," he said bluntly and Kate recoiled at the heartlessness of his words. "What, did you want me to lie? Say it was an accident? Because it wasn't, I was hired to kill her and I did, simple."_

_"Why?" Kate asked and Castle was extremely proud right now of the fact that she seemed to be keeping her cool._

_"She was meddling in things that didn't involve her, she found out things she shouldn't have found out," Coonan said, "look, can you get these two off of me? Handcuff me to the radiator if you want, but get them to back off."_

_Kate thought for a moment before sending a slight nod to Esposito, who loosed his grip and handcuffed one of Coonan's wrists before dragging him over to the radiator._

* * *

"I told her what Coonan told us about who's behind all of this, she's got every available agent running it all now, she said she'll get back to me if they find anything."

"That's..that's good. Though.." She trailed off, unsure of how to voice her thoughts.

"What is it, Kate? You can tell me," he pressed, he didn't want them to have secrets.

"I don't know if I want to know."

"You don't want to know what they find?" She shook her head. "Why not? I thought this was everything you ever wanted?"

"It is. Was." She ran her hands through her hair, "I don't know. I mean, like Coonan said, we'll never touch him, and that deal has been made now, I know he won't break that. So I'm safe, you're safe - you can go home to Alexis and we can all move on." She hadn't forgotten that she had told him she loved him and he was yet to say it back, maybe he didn't love her, maybe she'd read the signs wrong..

Castle didn't say anything, he was processing her words. She had a point, was it worth it to drag this out any longer? His mind flashed back to earlier that night when Coonan had been spilling his guts. He wasn't surprised, Kate had been ruthless in there, he had even caught Esposito and Ryan wincing a few times as she extracted the information they needed. Coonan had told them everything with the right persuasion, given up the name of his boss and finally giving them what they so desperately desired.

"Okay, fine," he replied finally, "if that's what you want, then fine."

"Really? You'll just drop it?"

"Really. I already told you I'm out, this was the last case and you're right - we should be safe now and I can finally see Alexis and begin to make up for everything I've put her through," he said.

"So that's it, we're done?" She asked, shifting slightly so she could look up at him from her position on the couch. She wasn't just talking about the case but she wanted to see if he caught her double meaning.

"Yeah, we're do-" he broke off, suddenly realising there was more than one question in there, "oh god, Kate no! I meant _this_ was done, the assignment, not us!" He felt her relax back into his side. "Kate, there's something I need to tell you."

But before Castle could tell her what was on his mind, they were interrupted by the shrill ringing of her cell phone.

"Beckett," she answered sleepily and then her eyes widened. "Okay, give me 20 minutes."

Hanging up the phone, she looked at him and said, "that was an officer from the precinct, I'm supposed to be on 'leave' for a 'family emergency' but the other lead homicide detective has come down with a bad case of food poisoning - they've got a body and I need to get over there ASAP."

* * *

**_A/N: finish time - 02.27am. Off to bed now. Huge thank you if you've reviewed/followed/favourited!_**

**_PS: given the stupid hour I wrote this at, I apologise for any glaring mistakes!_**


	18. Back home

**_A/N: I'm really enjoying writing this story, but I'm worried about dragging it on too long and just creating boring chapters where nothing really happens, so I'm probably going to try and wrap it up in a couple of chapters, but I promise I'm going to do my best to give it the best possible ending! Thank you so much for all of your reviewing/following/favouriting!_**

* * *

"I'm coming with you," Castle told her simply.

"What! No!" She half shouted back, "I'm going as a cop. You're not a cop."

"Kate, I love you."

Her eyes widened before the biggest grin he'd ever seen washed over her face. "You do?" She asked.

"Of course I do, silly, how could you think I don't?"

"Well it's just..you didn't say it back when I told you.." She said, cheeks flaming and looking down at the ground.

"Oh Kate, I would have done, but I didn't have time before Espo and Ryan brought Coonan in. And then I saw how distant you were when we left, I wasn't going to tell you then..and then I put you to bed, you were sound asleep when we got back." He smiled at her, his heart practically bursting out of his chest. He knew he loved her but seeing how much it meant to her that he did was making him the happiest man alive. "Honestly I could have told you days ago but I didn't want to push you away."

"You couldn't have," she said kissing him softly on the lips, "I was too crazy about you to not be with you." She kissed him again, more deeply this time, slipping her tongue past his lips.

She pulled away a few moments later, groaning as she did. "I really have to go."

"And I'm coming with you, I already said that," he said to her defiantly.

"No you're- wait. Is that why you told me you loved me? Trying to soften me up a bit?"

"Dammit, you caught me," he said, but she caught the teasing tone in his voice, "nah, I'm only kidding, I love you anyway." He kissed her once more. "Why, did it work?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at her.

"No!" She looked at him for a moment, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. "Okay fine, you can come with me," she relented.

"Really?"

"Yes, really, but you don't touch anything and you do whatever I say, deal?"

"Deal. Now come on, nobody but me gets to see your legs in those shorts, go and get dressed."

"'Kay," she grinned, kissing him once more before flouncing off to the bedroom to change out of her pyjamas.

* * *

"What have we got, Lanie?" Beckett asked as they arrived, although she was pretty certain she knew who's body that was before they had even arrived. Luckily, it wasn't the first time she had been the lead investigator on one of her own kills.

"Kate! What are you doing here, I thought you had a family emergency? And who's the tag along?" Lanie asked when she spotted Kate with Rick following close behind.

Luckily, Gina had informed them that any news reports on Montgomery's case had been deemed false and Castle and Beckett had been wrongly accused of his murder. An 'eye-witness' had left an anonymous tip saying that they had seen someone matching neither of their descriptions at the scene around the time of Montgomery's death. After that, Gina had contacted her sources in the news industry, asking them to put out a report saying it wasn't Castle and Beckett - using the fact that Castle was a public figure and Kate a well-respected detective as her reasoning.

"Oh, yeah.." Kate suddenly realised she hadn't spoken to Lanie about Castle. "Lanie, this is Richard Castle, the writer. Castle, this is Lanie, she's an ME and my best friend," Kate said, doing the introductions.

"Pleased to meet you," Castle said, holding out his hand for Lanie to shake.

"Mmhmm," she said, shaking his hand, "likewise. But uh, what's he doing here?" She directed her question at Kate.

"He uh, he was with me when I got the call..I said he could come along," Kate told her and Lanie could tell that's all she was getting for now. She'd have to press her for more details later.

"Right, well uh, Esposito and Ryan have already checked the body out so you don't need to, I'm just gonna take him back to the morgue and then get some sleep, I'll do the autopsy in the morning," Lanie told her and Kate could tell she was trying to deflect from the investigation, thus confirming her suspicions that they had found Coonan.

"So what aren't you telling me?" Kate knew she had to play along, Lanie didn't know what had gone down. Yet, anyway. Once she cut him open and put together her case file on the victim, there was no knowing what Lanie would find.

"They didn't make you detective for no reason, did they?" Lanie grumbled, "I thought I'd been quite convincing with that."

"No, even I could tell," Castle piped up, earning himself a death glare from Lanie. "Woah, do you two practice that together?" He asked, "that is exactly the same look Kate gives me when I annoy her."

"Right, so what aren't _you_ telling _me_?" She asked.

"So much, Lanie, so much," Kate teased, "now, show me the body. I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

"Kate.." Lanie attempted to stop her one more time.

"Seriously, Lanie, how do you expect me to investigate this case if you won't let me see the body?"

"Fine," Lanie sighed, "don't say I didn't warn you though."

Kate stepped around Lanie and looked down at the body of the man she had killed less than twelve hours ago.

"We'll looks like he met his end sooner rather than later," she said, "how did he die?"

"Single stab wound to the liver. My guess is that he suffered, probably died about an hour after being stabbed," Lanie explained.

"Good, he deserved it," Kate said. Little did Lanie know that her 'guess' was spot on.

* * *

Once they had checked out the crime scene, Beckett and Castle headed back to his loft, getting home around 6.30.

"Dad! You're back!" Alexis called when they walked through the front door. She jumped down from the stool she was sat at and rushed into her fathers arms, almost knocking him over in the process.

"Oomf," Castle grunted as his little redhead collided with him. "Hey there, Pumpkin. How are you?"

"Me! God, I'm fine, dad. How are you two?!"

"We're fine as well, Alexis," Beckett reassured her.

"So uh, I saw on the news that they said they'd wrongly accused you for killing Kate's boss..does that mean it's all over now?"

"Er, yeah, it does," Castle told her. He wasn't going to tell his daughter that the man they'd just seen dead on the floor had been killed by them, with the help of two other cops. As far as she was concerned, this was over now.

"Great," Alexis breathed out a sigh of relief. "Now, I have to get to school in a couple of hours but I can make breakfast? Pancakes? Eggs?"

"Woah woah woah, calm down, Pumpkin! Breakfast would be great, but I can make it. And I'm more than happy for you to skip school today, spend the day here?"

"Dad, you can't say that in front of a cop!" Alexis scolded.

Beckett laughed, "don't worry Alexis, secrets safe with me. I think it'd be good for you and your dad to spend the day together anyway, it's been a few days since you saw each other."

"I uh..um,.." Alexis said, not answering the question about skipping school.

"You have a test, don't you?" Castle asked as he began pulling eggs and bread down for breakfast.

"Yeah, a really really important chemistry one. I've been revising for weeks and don't think I'm not happy to see you because I am, it's just-"

"Don't worry, Pumpkin, I wouldn't want you to miss your test," he interrupted with a smile.

"Oh thank you, daddy." She hugged him tightly again.

"No problem, are you sure you're mine?" He couldn't believe his daughter had just thanked him for letting her go to school and not making her play hooky.

"First thing she offered for breakfast was pancakes, Castle. She's definitely yours," Beckett smiled.

"So um, are you two still uh.." She trailed off, not finishing her sentence.

"Yeah, we're together," Castle said simply and Kate smiled at him. "We need to talk about it but," he sent a sneaky glance towards Beckett before lowering his voice to a whisper, "I'm pretty crazy about her and I think she feels the same about me."

Kate giggled and Castle didn't think he'd ever heard a sound so delightful.

"Great!" Alexis said, "well the two of you can talk whilst I'm at school and then perhaps we can have a family dinner tonight? Gram should be around, too."

Kate looked at Alexis in shock, she hadn't expected to be invited to family dinners quite so soon.

"Sounds good, Pumpkin, but only if Kate wants to."

Alexis turned to the other woman with puppy dog eyes and Kate knew she wouldn't be able to say no. "Sure, I'm looking forward to it," she smiled.

* * *

Three hours later and Alexis had gone off to school, both her dad and Kate wishing her luck for her chemistry test and saying they'd see her later for dinner. Castle and Beckett had showered - together - and stopped by Kate's apartment for clean clothes before heading back to the precinct. They found Espo and Ryan in the break room and joined them in there, closing the door behind them.

"Hey guys, where are we on the Coonan case?" Kate asked, making coffee for her and Castle.

"How can you be so calm about it?" Espo asked, almost accusingly.

Kate looked at him in shock. "It's what I do, Espo. Well, did." She sighed, "now do you see why I didn't tell you?"

"Yeah..I'm sorry, Beckett, it's just weird seeing you come in here and ask about it like it's a normal case when we all know it isn't."

"Wouldn't be the first time," she muttered, turning back to the coffee.

"Wait, so you've investigated your own assignments before?" Ryan asked and Kate nodded.

Both of them could tell she wasn't happy talking about this and she was grateful when they dropped it. "Nothing on the case so far, he wasn't exactly a well-liked man so it's no use talking to any enemies, we'd be here until Christmas."

Castle's cell rang and he stepped outside to answer it, mouthing "Gina" as he left.

"How are we gonna hide this, Beckett?" Ryan asked and Kate suddenly realised the implications that came with asking the boys to help. Normally, she'd have Montgomery to help. Luckily, Castle stepped back in with a solution.

"Just so you know, Gina has constructed alibis for the four of us for last night. They'll be no record of any of us being anywhere near Coonan."

"How did she do that?!" Espo and Ryan said in unison and Kate laughed.

"Oh don't worry boys, it's standard procedure!"

"Right, well I guess we she should head down to the morgue, see what Lanie has found," Ryan suggested.

"Good idea, I uh, need go go and see Evelyn and the girls," Beckett said quietly.

"Want me to come with you?" Castle offered.

"No, it's fine, I'll go on my-"

"Kate," he said sharply.

"Erm yeah, if you wouldn't mind? That'd be great, thank you," she smiled at him.

"Great, let's go," Castle said, ushering her out of the the door. Espo and Ryan followed, the four of them stepping into the empty elevator.

"She'll be pleased to see you, you know," Espo reassured Kate who was uncharacteristically quiet.

"Yeah, she loves you," Ryan added, "send her our best, will you?"

"Sure, thanks guys," she said as her and Castle stepped out of the elevator and made their way out into the street.

Hailing a cab, they jumped in, giving the cabbie the address to the Montgomey household.

* * *

**_A/N: reviews make me happy :)_**

**_twitter - holaitsjade | tumblr - stanaabanana_**


	19. It's not your office

**_A/N: feeling nice so I'm updating again :) oh, and happy Castle Monday!_**

* * *

"You sure you wanna do this?" Castle asked. They were stood at the bottom of the driveway that lead up to what had been Roy Montgomery's house. Castle couldn't help but think that the last time they had both been here, it had been as she held her dying boss in her arms.

"Yeah, I have to," she said. "I owe it to Evelyn and her girls, she needs an explanation."

"What do you want to tell her?" He asked. He didn't mind her telling Evelyn whatever she wanted, he just wanted a heads up.

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted. "Look, I can do this alone, you don't have to come with-"

"I'm coming with you," he stated simply, "I love you, remember?"

"How long are you going to keep using that to soften me up and get your own way?" She asked.

"As long as it keeps working," he teased. "Now come on, let's get this over with," and he led her up the driveway, her hand wrapped firmly in his as she pressed the doorbell.

The few seconds it took Evelyn Montgomery to answer the door felt like hours to Kate. After what seemed like forever, the door swung open and she was enveloped in a tight hug.

"Oh Kate, I'm so glad to see you," Evelyn said, "come in, come in," she told them, releasing Kate from her hold and opening the door wider to allow them entry.

"Evelyn, this is my..boyfriend," it felt weird saying that but she figured that's what he was, "Richard Castle. Rick, this is Evelyn Montgomey, Captain Montgomery's wife."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs Montgomery, even if it is under these horrific circumstances," Rick said, holding out his hand for her to shake, "I'm very sorry for your loss, from what I've heard your husband was a brilliant man."

"Thank you, and please, call me Evelyn. It's a pleasure to meet you too, my Roy was a big fan of your work," she told him with a smile before leading them into the lounge and gesturing for them to sit. "Can I get you some coffee?" She asked.

"You sit down, I'll make the coffee," Kate said, jumping back up.

"Oh thank you, Kate. You know, I've had people in and out of here practically non-stop for the past few days, I feel like I've made enough coffee to get a job at Starbucks," she joked. "You know where everything is sweetie, I'll get to know your boyfriend a little better."

Kate headed into the kitchen blushing. Goodness knows what this two would end up talking about. Making coffee as quickly as she could, she found a tray and carried it back into the lounge, setting it on the coffee table in the middle of the room. "Where are the girls?" She asked, adding cream to her own coffee.

"School," Evelyn said. "I didn't want them to go back so soon but they insisted, well, Becca insisted and you know how Mary does everything her sister does." Kate smiled and nodded, she had met the girls many times before and she knew how close they were, it made her a little jealous sometimes that she'd never had anyone like that growing up. "I agreed, they just want some sort of normality right now. Their teachers promised to call if they thought they weren't doing okay, so I guess I have to let them grieve in their own way," Evelyn said, and for thre first time since they had arrived, Kate saw the emotion in her eyes.

"If you want, I could er, talk to them at some point," Kate offered, "you know, as an outsider and um, someone who sort of knows what they're going through.."

"Oh Kate, I couldn't ask you to do that!"

"You're not asking, I'm offering," Kate replied. "I just thought it might help them a bit.." After all, it was the least she could do given that she was the reason their dad was dead.

"Well, if you don't mind, that would be lovely, thank you," Evelyn said, smiling sadly at Kate.

"So, how are you holding up?" Castle asked and Kate thought she fell even more in love with him. He'd never met this woman before but here he was, asking her how she was because that's just the kind of person her was, always looking out for others.

"I'm..doing alright. As horrible as it sounds, I guess I always knew this could happen in his line of work." Kate and Rick exchanged glances which didn't go unnoticed by Evelyn. "What is it?"

"Evelyn, there's something you need to know.." Kate began.

"Kate? What is it?" She looked from Beckett to Castle, waiting for an answer. "Tell me, you're scaring me!"

Kate took a deep breath before beginning the story, it was important to get this right. "Okay, so you know Roy was the captain at the twelfth," Evelyn nodded, "well he also headed up a secret organisations..of assassins," she admitted.

"He..what?" Evelyn asked in disbelief. "Assassins?" Kate nodded. "Wait, how do you know about this?"

"Because I was one of them."

Evelyn gasped. "No! You..you can't be.." She looked to Rick for help who avoided her gaze and looked around the room. "And..and you too?"

Castle nodded. "Yeah, but for a different organisation. I didn't work for Roy."

"I'm so sorry, Evelyn, but I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't think it was important,' Kate explained.

"No, no, it's okay. It's just.. A lot to get my head round. I mean, why didn't he tell me?" She asked.

"He probably didn't want to worry you," Kate soothed, "and he probably felt it was safer if you didn't know, for you and the girls."

"So..so you..kill people?"

Kate hung her head. "I did," she whispered, "but I'm quitting now. But I promise you, every single person I have ever killed deserved it. They were terrorists and murderers and rapists and the worst possible people you could think of. Everything I ever did was to protect others, I wouldn't have ever done it otherwise," she was desperate for Evelyn not to hate her, she was one of the only people close to her that she had left.

"Okay," Evelyn replied. "I uh, guess it could be justified then.."

"Oh god, thank you!" Kate breathed out, she was so relieved that Evelyn wasn't throwing her out right now. "I uh, guess that's why Roy is dead."

"What do you mean?"

Kate looked to Castle who nodded and reached for her hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing lightly. "Castle and I met because I was supposed to kill him - and he was supposed to kill me." And she launched into the story of how the assignment had gone wrong and the price they had had to pay because of it, with them being sent after each other but not being able to kill each other because it didn't seem fair, neither of them had done anything wrong, they were both on the same team. "So uh, what I really came here for was to apologise," Kate finished.

"What for?" Evelyn asked. She had listened to the story intently and couldn't for the life of her imagine what Kate felt the need to apologise for.

"If it wasn't for me and Castle not doing our jobs, Montgomery wouldn't have had to try and make a deal and probably wouldn't be dead," she sobbed and Castle wrapped her up in his arms, pressing soft kisses to her head.

"Kate," Evelyn said quietly, "from what you've just told me, I think you did the right thing. Obviously I wish Roy hadn't been killed, but I know him..he never would have wanted to survive if it meant one of you two killing each other. And if he could see the two of you know..wow, he'd be so happy for you Kate, you know you're like a daughter to him and it's obvious how in love the two of you are," she smiled at them both and Kate couldn't believe how understanding she was being.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"No problem. Now, I hate to run out on you like this, but I need to meet my sister, she's coming to the funeral directors with me to organise everything."

"Oh no, that's fine, we've taken up enough of your time anyway," Kate said quickly. "I'll come over soon and talk to the girls, okay?"

"They'd really like that, thank you," Evelyn smiled.

And so they left, after Evelyn reassuring them that she would keep them informed of funeral arrangements and Castle remembering to pass on Esposito and Ryan's best wishes.

"See, that didn't go too badly," Castle said in the cab back to the precinct.

"No, I guess it didn't," she signed, leaning into him, "she was so understanding, I wasn't expecting that."

"It's because she loves you," he told her, "that much was obvious and at least now she knows the truth."

* * *

Heading back up to the right floor, they stepped out of the elevator and found Esposito and Ryan in what had been Montgomery's office, except someone new was behind his desk.

"What's going on?" Kate asked, walking into the room.

"And you are?"

"Detective Kate Beckett."

"Ah, Detective Beckett, your reputation precedes you. I'm Victoria Gates, you can call me 'Sir'."

"And why are you here? In Montgomery's office?" Kate asked rudely.

Gates eyed her with disapproval. "Captain Montgomery is dead, Detective, I imagine you're aware-"

"Aware? Yes I'm fucking aware, who do you think knelt by his side as he bled out?"

"Detective Beckett I will not have you using that sort of language in my office!" Gates reprimanded.

"It's not your office," Beckett snarled before storming out with Castle close behind her.

"Beckett!" No response. "Kate, wait," he called out.

"Leave me alone, Castle."

"Kate, let's go home and calm down-"

"Home? We don't live together, Castle, our homes are separate."

She stepped out of the elevator and headed out onto the busy New York street. "No, they're not," he half shouted at her.

She spun around to face him. "What do you mean?" She asked. Was he really saying..

"You're moving in with me," he growled into her ear and a shiver of pleasure ran through her spine.

"You getting all territorial, Caslte?" She whispered seductively.

"Yes. I am. Problem?"

"No, no problem. It's actually really hot," she bit her lip and he practically dragged her to a nearby waiting cab before shoving them in and rattling off her address. "We're going back to mine?" She asked.

"Yeah, so we can pack your stuff and take it to mine. I'll have Eduardo drive the car over."

"You're actually serious? About me moving in?"

"Yes, I'm serious. Did you think I was joking?"

"No," she said, "but I just told you to leave me alone and you asked me - well told me, - that I'm moving in with you.."

"Kate, you're upset and angry. It's been a crap time and seeing that woman in his office can't have helped. But I love you and I want you with me all the time. I know I sound like a 15 year old girl but I don't care, I love you so much and I'm never letting you go. Okay?"

"Okay," she smiled, agreeing to his promise of forever. "What about Alexis?"

"What about her? She already loves you, she invited you to a family dinner, remember?"

"Mm, I guess."

"No guessing needed, she'll be fine. Now, let's grab whatever stuff you want and get it over to mine," he said, paying the cabbie and heading towards her apartment.

* * *

Three hours later and most of her clothes and her favourite belongings had been transported to Castle's loft and they were relaxing on the sofa with raspberry tea.

"So," Castle began, "I guess neither of us are assassins anymore which means I'm just a writer. But what does that make you? You going back to work as a cop even though Montgomery won't be there?"

"Depends who they make Captain," she replied. Espo had text about an hour ago, telling her that Gates was only temporary, just until they filled the position permanently. "I love it there, though, I don't think I want to leave."

"Well, take a few days, I'm sure they owe you that. We can hang here and drink coffee in our pajamas. Ooo, it's Saturday tomorrow, we can do something with Alexis if you like.."

"Castle, when she gets home from school she's going to find out I've moved in, I think she'd like to spend some time with you alone tomorrow!"

"If you say so, but I know Alexis and I know she's going to want to spend as much time with you as possible," he told her.

Castle was right - Alexis arrived home to find Kate had moved in and practically squealed with joy. She couldn't wait to start doing things as a family and it seemed Kate had nothing to worry about.

* * *

**_A/N: so the next chapter will be set about three months in the future and will be the last. Can't believe we're almost at the end! Thoughts appreciated on this chapter :)_**

**_twitter - holaitsjade | tumblr - stanaabanana_**


	20. Three months later

**_A/N: so, here we go - the last chapter!_**

* * *

**Three months later..**

"Beckett!" Castle called from the lounge. "Hurry up, we're gonna be - _wow_." He forgot all about being late as soon as he saw her come out of their bedroom. That dress she was wearing .._wow_. It was tight in all the right places and showed just the amount of cleavage..and those legs, oh _god_ they went on for miles.

"You..you look _incredible_," he told her, still taking in her appearance.

"Thank you," she replied shyly, biting her lip. "Do the shoes look okay?" She asked.

He looked to her feet and groaned, those shoes were phenomenal, five inch stiletto heels - bright red and screaming _fuck me_. He was so making her keep those on when they got home, well, that's if they even got out in the first place, she had floored him with her outfit.

"Yeah," he choked out, "the shoes are great. Now come on, before I drag you into the bedroom instead of out the door." He ushered them out of the door and into the elevator before he could turn them right back round again. They exited the building and climbed into the waiting town car he had arranged.

They were heading to the book launch for his first Nikki Heat novel. She had challenged him on the name at first but he had claimed _artistic integrity_ and she had found no way to convince him to change it. And her ways of convincing him definitely didn't help, given that he so helpfully pointed out that her ways sort of solidified the part about Nikki Heat being _'kinda slutty_'. She had given him that one, didn't stop them having some fun over it anyway.

The whole journey there, Beckett had practically sat on her hands to stop from throwing herself at Castle. God, the way he had looked at her when she had come out of the bedroom had sent shivers down her spine. If it hadn't been the book launch for his own book, she would have suggested they not even bother going. God, if her putting on dresses like this got _that_ kind of a reaction out of him, she'd do it more often.

"You ready?" He asked when they arrived.

She took a deep breath and said "yes," stepping out of the car after him and hooking her arm through his. They walked forward, meeting a flash of bulbs as the paparazzi went crazy. Shouts of "Castle, Castle. Over here!" Echoed through the crowd, and they posed for pictures. A reporter stood just next to them and they stopped to answer a few questions.

"So, this is the real life Nikki Heat is it?" She asked.

"Yes," Castle replied, "the one and only Kate Beckett." He smiled at Kate and she relaxed a bit. This wasn't her sort of thing, she was much more private usually but she was doing this for Castle. The press were going crazy over this new book and she had agreed to be there with he for the launch, announcing to the world who Nikki Heat was based on.

"So, are you two together in real life? I mean that sex scene on page 105 was steamy!"

Castle laughed and Kate blushed. "Yeah, we are a couple."

"And the sex scene?"

"No comment," Kate put in and Castle laughed again.

"One more question before I let you get inside - the other side of Nikki Heat, as an assassin - is that real too?"

Castle smiled at Kate, they had expected this question and had an answer prepared. "No, of course not - and if it were, I probably wouldn't be alive to tell the story!" He said.

The reporter laughed, "I suppose not. Now, you two go enjoy your night!"

They thanked her and headed inside.

* * *

"So, that wasn't too bad, was it?" Castle asked as they relaxed in the car on the way back to the loft.

"No," she smiled at him, "I quite enjoyed myself actually."

"Good, I'm glad," he said, "I told you everyone would love you!"

"I don't care about any of them loving me.." She said.

"I love you," he said with a smile and she grinned back at him.

"Good. I love you too."

"Brilliant, now that we've got that sorted, I'm going to take you home and take full advantage of the fact that Alexis and Mother are both staying out for the evening."

* * *

It had been three months since their case had ended, three months of living together and Castle announcing that he had come up with a brilliant idea for a new book. She hadn't wanted him to base a character on her at first, but once he set his mind to something he wasn't changing it. He was just as stubborn as her and she had had to let him get on with it eventually. He had let her read it before it was published and she had to admit, it was pretty good. And that page 105? Jesus, she had been glad she was alone when she had read it.

The book launch party had been a success, Gina, Castle's publisher had been happy with the initial response and it was set to go straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. And just two days ago, Castle had signed a contract for a minimum of three more Nikki Heat novels, with the prospect of extending it if the next two sold well.

They were _happy_. Not just the two of them - Castle said he hadn't seen his mother or Alexis this happy in a while either, something to do with worrying about him. They had both sat down with Martha and Alexis and checked they were okay with Kate moving in and it had surprised Kate to know they were both more than happy, they had welcomed her with open arms and the four of them got on famously, sitting down for family dinners a few times a week. Luckily though, they had both made other plans for after the party this evening, meaning Castle and Beckett had the loft to themselves..

* * *

Beckett was woken ridiculously early the next morning by the shrill ringing of her cell phone. "Beckett," she grumbled into the phone, it was way too early be up when she hadn't got to sleep until - she checked the time - ugh, an hour and a half ago. "Okay, I'll be there in 20," she sighed, hanging up the phone.

She dragged herself out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, almost tripping over her shoes from last night. Castle had made her keep them on when they got home and so they had been chucked anywhere when she finally took them off. Turning back to look at her sleeping boyfriend, she smiled at how peaceful he looked and decided she wasn't going to wake him, she'd leave him a note to find when he woke up.

Seemed like he had other plans though. "Staring's creepy," he grumbled, opening one eye to look at her.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" She asked. "I've gotta go, you go back to sleep and I'll see you later."

"No no, I'm coming with you," and he sat up, desperately tying to wake himself up a bit.

"Castle, we've both had an hour and a half of sleep, you really don't need to get up just because I do," she said to him.

"I'm your partner, it's what I'm here for. Besides, call it a thank you for coming to that book launch with me last night."

"Oh I think you managed to thank me enough when we got back," she said with a smile. After all, that was the reason they'd only had a teeny tiny amount of sleep.

* * *

Twenty minutes later and they were stumbling to their crime scene, coffee firmly grasped in their hands. "What've we got, Espo?" Beckett asked as they arrived.

Espo looked up and bit back a smile. "Why do you two look so tired?" He asked. "I mean, I know it's 5.30 but I called you at 5, it's not _that_ early, we've been up earlier than this before."

"Not much sleep," was all Castle said before taking a large gulp of his coffee.

"But you two left the party at 10.30.." Ryan supplied helpfully and the glare Beckett shot him had them both laughing.

"Shut up," Castle and Beckett said simultaneously and that did nothing to stop the laughing from the other two detectives.

After getting all they could from their crime scene - and from a rather unhelpful Perlmutter - they all headed to the precinct to begin their investigation.

By that afternoon, they had thankfully wrapped up their case and all that was left was paperwork. "We'll leave it until tomorrow," Beckett announced to them, ignoring their looks of disbelief. "C'mon, we've all been up since ridiculously early this morning, we can leave it for now and finish it tomorrow." The others weren't about to disagree, quickly grabbing their things and getting ready to leave.

There was just one thing Beckett had to do before she left. "Hold on a sec, Castle, I'll be back in a minute." She walked over to what had been Montgomery's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the voice from the other side.

Kate entered, closing the door behind her.

"Detective Beckett, what can I do for you?"

"I uh, I just wanted to tell you that uh, I'm not accepting the offer."

"You're not?"

"No," she said. "I've thought long and hard about it and I've decided I don't want it. Maybe in 20 years, but not now, I need to work as a detective for longer before I become Captain."

"Well," Gates said, "I'll inform the commissioner, and uh, just so you know - I've been told the job is mine if you didn't want it.."

"I know," Kate said, "for the last three months you've proved yourself to us, despite the fact you didn't need to. It was a hard act to follow, especially with the way Montgomery died, but I know now that I was wrong to doubt you when you first took over."

"Detective, we've moved past this. You apologised for your behaviour that day and once I had been informed of the circumstances, I understood. Now, if you're you don't want the job, I shall inform the commissioner."

"I'm sure," Beckett smiled, "ask me again in 20 years and I might have a different answer."

"Very well, Detective," Gates said and Kate made her way back out to Castle.

* * *

Castle was silent the whole journey back to the loft, sensing that Kate didn't really want to talk, however as they made their way though the front door, he couldn't contain himself any longer. "So, everything okay with Gates?" He knew how Kate had felt when she first met Gates, but knew they were on better terms now. Both he and Kate had seen a therapist, who had helped them talk through their problems and both of them felt much more relaxed now.

They had both stayed true to their word - neither of them were assassins anymore. Kate hadn't had to technically quit given that her boss was no longer here. She had taken over for a week or so, before handing it on to one of the other agents and leaving it behind for good.

Castle had gone to Gina a couple of days after they had finished the case and said he was through and luckily, Gina had agreed without complaint.

"Yep. I officially turned down the job today," she smiled at him.

"You did?" He asked and she nodded, they'd spoken about it and he had listened to her debate whether or not to take the job but he still hadn't been convinced she wouldn't take it.

"I did. I'm staying a detective. For the next 20 years or so, anyway."

It had been a suprise when the commissioner himself had called her to formally offer her the position as Captain. Apparently, Montgomery had written a letter to the commissioner before he died, asking that if anything happened to him then Kate was seriously considered as his replacement. The commissioner had told her that despite her age, she had proven herself to be more than capable, but after spending a few weeks thinking on it, she had decided she didn't want it. She was much happier as a detective, being at the forefront of their investigations and bringing justice to famililes. She could go for Captain again when she was older.

Castle strode towards her and wrapped his arms around her, "20 years hey? Well, you might have to take a few years out of that to have our children," he whispered into her ear.

She pulled back to look at him. "Well, you'll have to marry me first, Castle," she said with a grin, before leaning back in to plant her lips over his.

* * *

**_A/N: and we're done! Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed, you've really made me so happy! I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it! I'd love to know what you think of this final chapter so please leave me a review and let me know your thoughts!_**

**_twitter - holaitsjade | tumblr - stanaabanana_**


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